Comments 

~  N-C.  State  democratic  executive  committee 


Stye  Stbraqj 
Unttt^r^tlg  of  £farifj  ffiaraittta 


(ttnlbrttnti  of  Nurift.  (BaraUmatra 


Comments  by  the  State 
Democratic  Committee 


ON    THE 


HAND  BOOK  ISSUED  BY  THE  PEOPIiES  PflRTY 
STATE  EXECUTIVE  COMMITTEE. 


ft  Discussion  of  the  Contents  of  this  Book, 

SHOWING  THAT  IT  IS  NOT  ISSUED  IN  THE  * 

INTEREST  OF  THE  POPULIST  PARTY. 


It  does  not  Contain  any  Platform  of  the  Populist  Party,  nor  does 
it  Discuss  or  Advocate  any  of  its  Well-known  Principles. 


POPULIST  HAND  BOOK  ANSWERED. 


The  Democratic  campaign  for  the  re- 
storation and  maintainanee  of  WHITE 
SUPREMACY  in  North  Carolina  has 
been  in  full  progress  since  the  first  of 
August.  The  campaign  Hand  Book  set- 
ting forth  the  line  of  attack  was  issued 
about  the  middle  of  August.  The 
Democratic  press  of  the  State,  in  full 
accord  with  the  plan  of  campaign,  has 
been  making  it  hot  for  the  Republican 
party.  Press,  speakers  and  Hand-Book 
alike  have  shown  that  the  Republican 
party  by  its  very  composition  is  DOM- 
INATED BY  THE  NEGRO  and  of 
necessity  has  adopted  the  policy  of 
giving  the  negroes  the  local,  offices  in 
communities  where  thev  are  found  in 
large  numbers.  No  Republican  so  far 
as  we  are  advised,  has  dared  to  dispute 
these  propositions,  for  the  simple  rea- 
son they  cannot  be  disputed.  It  is 
therefore  against  the  Republican  party 
that  the  Democratic  party  is  waging 
this  warfare  and  making  this  fight 
for  white  supremacy. 

It  had  never  occurred  to  us  to  charge 
the  Populist  PARTY  with  being  in  fa- 
vor of  placing  negroes  over  white  men. 
The  Populist  Party  is  made  up  ex- 
clusively of  white  men,  and  we  have 
never  charged,  and  we  do  not  believe, 
that  the  rank  and  file  of  that  party 
favors  negro  supremacy. 

On  the  contrary,  our  appeal  has  been, 
is  now  and  will  be  to  the  day  of  elec- 
tion, to  those  very  men  to  join  with  us 
to  undo  the  wrong  done  by  the  Repub- 
lican party  in  placing  negroes  over 
white  men,  and  to  assist  us  in  protect- 
ing their  white  brothers  and  friends 
against  a  repetition  of  this  wrong. 

THE      HAND      BOOK      APOLOGIZES 
FOR  NEGRO  RULE. 

We  cannot  therefore  express  our 
surprise  at  the  course  pursued  by  the 
executive  committee  of  the  Populist 
Party  in  thrusting  itself  forward  as  the 
apologist,  if  not  the  advocate,  of  negro 
supremacy.  No  Republican  has  dared 
to  join  issue  with  the  Democratic 
party  on  this  otuestion  or  to  '  gainsay 
any  statement  made  by  the  Democrat- 
ic party  in  reference  thereto.  That 
task,  strange  to  say,  seems  to  have 
fallen  to  the  Populist  branch  of  the 
fusion  arrangement.  We  suppose, 
however,   that  the  Republican   leaders, 


knowing  by  years  of  bitter  experience 
how  hopeless  the  task,  were  only  too 
glad  to  cast  the  dirty  work  upon  their 
unnatural  but  well-paid  allies. 

IT   DECLARES   THAT     NEGRO     OF- 
FICE-HOLDING   IS    FAVORED 
BY   DEMOCRATS. 

When  one  reads  this  remarkable 
book  and  studies  the  impotent  and 
futile  efforts  to  show  that  the  Demo- 
cratic party  looks  with  complacency 
upon  negro  rule,  it  must  become  appa- 
rent that  its  author  had  made  up  his 
mind  to  part  company  with  the  truth 
and  he  hoped  to  palm  off  on  his  fol- 
lowers a  falsehood  so  palpable  that  the 
most  ignorant  negro  in  the  state  would 
laugh  at  it.  Of  all  the  120,000  negro 
voters  in  the  State  there  is  not  one  so 
ignorant  that  he  does  not  know  that 
the  Republican  party  favors  negroes 
holding  office  and  that  the  Democratic 
party  opposes  it.  Of  all  the  white  Re- 
publicans in  the  State  not  one  will 
undertake  to  dispute  these  proposi- 
tions. It  requires  the  cheek  and  the 
depravity  of  the  fellow  who  wrote  that 
part  of  the  Populist  Hand  Book  to 
write  and  publish  so  palpable  a  false- 
hood as  that  the  Democratic  party  fa- 
vors negro  office-holding.  The  rank 
and  file  of  the  Populist  party  well  know 
what  party  in  this  State  favors  white 
supremacy  and  the  exclusion  of  the  ne- 
gro from  office,  and  all  over  the  State 
they  are  allying  themselves  with  the 
Democratic  party  in  this,  fight,  in 
which  the  auestion  of  negro  or  white 
supremacy  has  forced  itself  to  the  front 
as  the  great  overshadowing  issue. 

THE   REASON. 

It  is  well  known  that  Cyrus  Thomp- 
son, the  chairman  of  the  executive 
committee,  and  Hal  W.  Ayer,  the  sec- 
retary, are  both  holding  important  and 
lucrative  offices  which  they  obtained 
by  inducing  the  Populists  to  fuse  with 
the  negroes  in  1896,  and  that  their  only 
hope  of  retaining  these  offices  is  by 
keeping  up  this  fusion.  Hence  when 
they  see  the  rank  and  file  of  their  par- 
ty leaving  them  and  going  over  to  the 
true  representative  white  man's  party, 
they  see  the  time  coming  when  they 
will  have  to  give  up  these  places  which 
they  obtained  by  a  trade  with  the  ne- 


groes,  and  thev  become  wrathv  and 
undertake  to  persuade  these  returning 
Populists  that  the  Democratic  party- 
favors  negroes  holding  office.  What 
an  absurdity!  To  do  this  they  tell  of 
a  few  isolated  cases  in  a  few  counties 
where  a  few  negroes  for  certain  rea- 
sons held  office  for  a  short  while  after 
the  Democrats  came  into  power.  Let 
us  briefly  review  the  facts  which  are 
well  known  to  any  man  who  knows 
anything  of  the  history  of  his  State  for 
the  last  thirty  years. 

THE   FACTS   IN   THE   CASE. 

In  1868  the  right  to  vote  and  to  hold 
office  in  North  Carolina  was  given  to 
the  negro  by  the  Republican  party  and 
soon  the  negro  became  an  extensive 
office-holder  in  the  eastern  counties. 
The  Republican  party  then  as  now  was 
largely  made  up  of  negroes.  Then  as 
now  the  white  Republican  leaders  did 
not  dare  to  put  a  negro  on  their  State 
ticket  and  thev  adopted  the  policy, 
then  as  now,  of  giving  him  the  local 
offices  in  counties  and  towns  where 
the  negroes  were  found  in  large  num- 
bers. Under  this  policy  the  counties 
and  towns  of  the  east  were  turned  over 
to  the  negroes  and  many  of  them  were 
pillaged  and  plundered  until  the  white 
people  and  tax-payers  in  those  com- 
munities determined  to  make  an  appeal 
to  their  White  brethren  in  the  West  for 
relief.  It  was  in  conseauence  of  this 
condition  of  things  in  the  east  that  the 
Democratic  Legislature  of  1874-'5,  hark- 
ening  to  this  appeal,  passed  an  act 
calling  a  convention  of  the  people  to 
amend  the  Constitution  so  as  to  give 
the  white  people  of  the  East  relief  from 
negro  domination.  That  convention 
met  in  the  fall  of  1875  and  made  cer- 
tain amendments  to  the  Constitution 
which  would  enable  the  Legislature  to 
provide  certain  measures  of  relief.  The 
democrats  voted  in  that  conventio" 
solidly  for  these  measures  of  relief,  and 
the  Republicans  solidly  against  them. 
In  the  great  campaign  of  1876  these 
proposed  measures  of  relief  had  to  be 
voted  on  by  the  people  and  they  con- 
stituted the  line  of  battle  in  that  mem- 
orable campaign.  Vance  led  the  white 
men  of  the  State  in  favor  of  their 
adoption  by  the  people.  His  opponent, 
Judge  Settle,  led  the  Republicans  co- 
horts against  their  adoption.  A  large 
majority  of  the  people  stood  with 
Vance  for  the  relief  of  the  east,  and 
those  proposed  amendments  became  a 
part  of  the  Constitution.  In  passing 
from  the  elective  to  the  appointive  sys- 
tem of  choosing  the  justices  of  the 
peace,  a  few  negro  magistrates  (not  a 
half  a  dozen  in  all)  were  allowed  to 
remain  in  office  in  three  or  four  coun- 
ties; but  this  was  for  a  single  time  only 
and  was  never  repeated.  This  occur- 
red in  1877  and  never  after  that  was  a 


negro- appointed  or  chosen  a  justice  of 
the  peace  by  any  Democratic  constit- 
uency. 

THE    DEMOCRATIC    SYSTEM. 

The  new  system  of  county  govern- 
ment established  by  the  Legislature  of 
1877  was  a  blessing  to  the  people  of  the 
east.  Under  this  system  the  tax-pay- 
ers and  white  men  took  charge  of  the 
county  government,  and  such  a  thing 
as  a  negro  justice  of  the  peace  was  ab- 
solutely unheard  of  in  the  State  until 
the  Republican  party  again  came  into 
power  in  1895.  But  it  must  be  remem- 
bered that  this  new  system  of  county 
government  did  not  absolutely  exclude 
the  negro  from  off  Lee;  for  most  of  the 
county  officers,  to  wit:  the  clerk,  the 
sheriff,  the  register  of  deeds,  the  coro- 
ner, the  surveyor  and  the  constable 
were  still  elected  by  the  people. 

WARREN     AND     HALIFAX     COUN- 
TIES. 

It  may  be  that  in  a  tew  counties  like 
Warren  and  Halifax,  where  the  ne- 
groes  largely  exceed  the  whites,  that 
some  terms  were  made  with  the  better 
class  of  negroes  to  protect  the  people 
in  their  county  affairs  against  the  bad 
and  vicious  element;  but  if  such  was 
the  case,  it  was  the  Republican  party 
that  had  forced  these  alternatives  on 
the   white  people  of  those  counties. 

And  what  has  been  done  in  Warren 
is  much  perverted  in  the  Hand-Book. 
The  Hand-Book  says  negro  deputy 
sheriffs  were  appointed  by  Democratic 
sheriffs.  That  is  denied  both  as  to 
Chatham  and  Warren,  and  other  state- 
ments as  to  Warren  denied. 

The  Republican  party  never  ceased 
its  warfare  upon  the  system  of  county 
government  which  excluded  the  negro 
from  the  offices  of  county  commission- 
ers and  justices  of  the  peace  and  which 
had  brought  untold  blessings  to  the 
white  people  of  the  east.  In  every 
campaign  the  Republicans  made  the 
abolition  of  this  system  a  part  of  their 
creed  and  openly  waged  war  upon  it. 
Democrats  defended  this  system  and 
always  won  in  the  fight  till  the  Popu- 
lists united  with  the  Republicans  in 
'94. 

THE  DEMOCRATIC   SYSTEM   OVER- 
THROWN. 

When  the  Republican  Fusion  Legis- 
lature of  1895  convened,  this  system, 
which  the  Democrats  had  established 
and  maintained  for  the  protection  of 
the  white  people,  was  abolished  and  the 
election  'of  justices  of  the  peace  and 
county  commissioners  was  given  both 
to  the  people.  At  once  history  began 
to  repeat  itself.  The  local  offices  were 
turned  over  to  the  negroes,  and  where 
it  could  not  be  done  otherwise,  town 
charters   were  changed   so   as   to  make 


it  certain.  In  the  short  time  since  the 
Republicans  again  came  into  power, 
wonderful  progress  has  been  made  in 
fixing  the  well  known  Republican  pol- 
icy of  giving  the  local  offices  to  the  ne- 
groes in  the  counties  and  towns  of  the 
east.  In  four  counties  alone  114  negro 
magistrates  have  been  chosen  and 
cities  and  towns  have  been  turned  over 
to  this  irresponsible  population,  and 
there  is  now  in  North  Carolina  some- 
thing near   1,000  negro   office-holders. 

And  again  as  in  the  davs  prior  to 
'76  the  eastern  people  are  appealing  to 
their  brethren  of  other  sections  for  re- 
lief. It  is  therefore  absolutely  certain 
that  it  is  the  Republican  party  itself 
which  has  brought  the  negro  question 
acutely  to  the  front. 

IT    IS   A    REPUBLICAN    FIGHT. 

The  Republican  leaders,  as  we  under- 
stand it,  do  not  seek  to  cover  up  or 
dodge  the  issue.  They  reljy  upon  the 
negro  for  their  support  and  they  stand 
by  him  and  their  policy  of  giving  him 
the  local  offices.  It  is  their  fight,  but 
they  publish  no  hand  book.  It  is 
against  this  policy  of  the  Republican 
party  that  the  Democratic  party  is 
making  its  fight,  and  it  is  this  policy 
which  the  Republican  party  is  defend- 
ing with  a  devotion  worthy  of  a  bet- 
ter cause. 

The  negro  knows  he  must  look  to 
the  Republican  party,  and  the  Republi- 
can narty  alone,  to  get  office,  and 
hence  be  is  solid  for  his  party.  The 
white  Republican  leader  knows  he 
must  look  to  the  negro  for  office  and 
he  stands  manfully  by  the  negro  and 
his  domination  over  the  white  man. 
There  is  not  a  negro  fool  enough  to 
think  or  a  white  Republican  leader 
mean  enough  to  charge  that  the  negro 
can  get  office  in  the  Democratic  party. 

WHAT  THE  HAND  BOOK  CHARGES 

Notwithstanding  all  these  facts  which 
must  be  known  to  them,  Dr.  Thomp- 
son and  Mr.  Ayer  have  the  hardihood 
to  suggest  in  their  hand  book  that  the 
Democratic  party  is  not  sincere  in  the 
fight  it  is  making  for  white  supremacy 
in  North  Carolina.  But  then  these  men 
must  do  something  to  show  their  ap- 
preciation for  past  favors  and  their 
desire  for  a  continuance  of  the  same. 
They  now  hold  lucrative  offices  by  -he 
grace  of  the  negroes  and  their  white 
leaders,  and  they  desire  to  continue  'n 
these  offices.  They  must  stand  in  with 
the  negroes  and  their  white  leaders 
and  at  the  same  time  keep  the  rank 
and  file  of  the  Populists  in  line  ready 
to  march  ever  to  join  the  negroes,  or 
they  fear  that  they  will  lose 
their  fat  jobs.  They  well  know  that  if 
the  rank  and  file  of  the  Populists  shall 
ever  becore  fully  informed  as  to  the 
true  conditions  existing  in  the  eastern 


counties  and  of  the  real  purpose  of  the 
Populist  leaders  to  fuse  them  with  ne- 
groes, that  these  good  men  will  turn 
their  backs  upon  such  false  leaders  and 
cpit  uoon  and  dispise  them.  Hence 
tbey  ba\e  written  a  book  to  be  dis- 
tributed among  their  followers,  full 
of  falsehood  and  misrepresentation,  in 
the  vain  hope  of  keeping  them  in  i'ne 
till  Euch  time  as  they  may  be  again 
needed  to  be  traded  off.  As  full  of 
falsehood  ar.o  fabrication  as  the  book 
may  be,  there  is  one  picture  in  it  that 
is  true  to  life.  It  is  probably  the  most 
remarkable  Dicture  of  oneself  eve" 
written.  We  transcribe  this  pen  pic- 
ture of  themselves  from  page  9  of  their 
own  book.  It  is  in  these  words:  "A» 
organized  liar  will  not  stop  lying  sim- 
ply because  it  cannot  find  something 
to  lie  about.  It  will  invent  something." 
Not  one  of  the  great  masters  ever  pro- 
duced upon  canvass  a  more  perfect 
likeness  than  these  two  men  have  made 
of  themselves  in  these  remarkable 
words. 


The  Character  of  the   Hand  Book. 

The  keynote  of  "The  People's  Party 
Hand  Book"  is  an  appeal  to  prejudices 
rather  than  a  discussion  of  principles. 
It  is  on  a  low  plane.  One  finds  in  it 
no  ennobling  thought.  One  looks 
throughout  its  pages  in  vain  for  a  sin- 
gle elevating  sentiment.  It  appears 
from  the  first  to  be  something  of  a 
fraud — for  while  purporting  to  be  a 
Populist  Hand  Book,  it  is  really  issued 
in  the  interest  of  the  Republican,  Gold- 
bug  party.  We  find  no  chapter  in  it 
devoted  to  the  Reforms  which  the 
Populist  party  has  advocated.  We  see 
not  a  word  in  advocacy  of  silver.;  none 
in  advocacy  of  cutting  down  fees  and 
.salaries;  none  in  advocacy  of  any  Pop- 
ulist measure.  It  is  Republican  in  its 
tendencies  throughout.  But  then  the 
Populist  leaders  now  in  control  of  that 
1»(  rty  have  allied  themselves  so  thor- 
oughly with  black  Republicanism  and 
gold-bugism  that  nothing  else  could 
be  expected  from  them.  They  have  not 
even  stopped  at  the  half-way  house, 
and  this  book  is  evidence  that  they 
rely  on  carrying  their  Populist  friends 
clean  over  into  the  ranks  of  blaek  .Re- 
publicanism. 

THEY    CHARGE    THE    WHITE    MEN 
WITH  PLUNDERING  THE  STATE. 

Let  us  see  what  they  say  of  the  white 
men  of  the  State.  While  the  Republi- 
can party  has  about  30,000  white  men 
and  120,000  black  men  in  it,  and  the 
Populist  party  has  about  32,000  white 
men  in  it,  about  148,000  white  men  com- 
pose the  Democratic  party.  Now  which 


of  these  parties  is  most  largely  inter- 
ested in  having  good  government  in 
North  Carolina — in  having  an  economi- 
cal, honest,  clean  and  efficient  admin- 
istration of  public  affairs?  Which  has 
the  most  property,  pays  the  most  taxes 
and  otherwise  is  the  most  interested  in 
the  State? 

Certainly,  the  148,000  white  men.  And 
SroftJ  1877  to  1895  this  party  was  in  ab- 
solute power  in  the  State,  and  no  State 
iin  the  Union  had  a  more  economical, 
honest  and  clean  administration  than 
North  Carolina  during  that  long  pe- 
riod. The  Populist  leaders  never  claim- 
ed anything  to  the  contrary.  Polk  and 
Butler  and  Skinner  all  commended  the 
State  government  as  late  as  1892. 

And  yet  this  Hand  Book,  being  a  Re- 
publican document,  much  more  than  a 
Populist  Hand  Book,  speaks  of  these 
148,000  white  men — the  Democratic  par- 
ty— "as  seeking  a  few  years  more  of 
license  to  plunder  the  State  in  such  a 
manner  as  the  figures  presented  in  this 
pamphlets  show  that  they  have  hereto- 
fore plundered  and  robbed  and  looted 
it." 

Now  what  a  charge  to  bring  against 
the  148,000  -white  men  who  form  the 
Democratic  party  in  North  Carolina, 
that  'their  object  is  to  plunder  tne 
State — which  virtually  is  themselves! 
to  plunder  and  rob  and  loot  their  own 
treasury!  Remember  the  negroes,  who 
form  the  bulk  of  the  opposition  pay  no 
taxes  to  speak  of — and  so  the  whites  of 
North  Carolina  are  banded  together  to 
rob  themselves!  Does  not  that  decla- 
ration discredit   the  entire  production? 


They  Complain  That  the  Democrats 
Have  Not  Disfranchised  the  Neqro. 

Again,  this  Republican-Populist 
Hand  Book  says:  "In  nearly  every 
Southern  State  except  North  Carolina 
the  negro  is  disfranchised,  with  the  re- 
sult that  racial  antagonisms  cannot  he 
aroused  because  of  the  -absence  of  a 
basis  on  which  to  proceed.  The  same 
power  that  disfranchised  the  negro  in 
these  Southern  States  has  been  wielded 
by  the  Democratic  party  in  North  Car- 
olina for  twenty  years  and  yet  no  ad- 
vantage whatever  has  been  taken  of 
that  power." 

As  a  matter  of  fact  there  are  some 
fifteen  Southern  States,  and  in  only 
one  of  them,  Mississippi,  was  any  effort 
made  to  restrict  negro  suffrage  during 
the  20  years  the  Democrats  had  power 
in  North  Carolina. 

But  "that  discrepancy  between  fact 
and  statement  ought  not  to  be  men- 
tioned. It  is  so  slight,  in  comparison 
with  others;  such  a  slight  falling  off 
from   the   truth — ;    and   the   authors   of 


the  Hand  Book  told  the  truth  when 
they  said  that  notwithstanding  the 
Democrats  had  power  in  North  Caroli- 
na, they  had  not  sought  to  disfran- 
chise the  negro.  We  can  forgive  them 
much  for  a  single  truth.  But  what  do 
Dr.  Thompson  and  Mr.  Hal  Ayer  mean 
by  that  charge?  Do  they  mean  to  com- 
plain about  the  fact?  Why  did  they  not 
propose  it?  Why  have  they  not  pro- 
posed it  in  the  Populist  party?  Or  do 
they  propose  it  now?  Do  they  favor 
disfranchising  the  negroes  in  North 
Carolina?  That  wrould  be  rather  a 
mean  thing  for  them  to  do;  because  it 
is  by  the  negro  votes  that  they  have 
their  offices.  And  as  they  could  not  be 
elected  to  any  office  in  North  Carolina 
except  by  negro  votes,  we  are  not  in- 
clined to  think  that  they  do  favor  dis- 
franchising the  negro  voters. 

And  yet  when  they  speak  of  the 
Democrats  "being  too  weak  and  cow- 
ardly to  stand  up  as  men  and  enact 
laws  disfranchising  the  negro  vote, 
which  laws  would  have  been  constitu- 
tional," we  can  not  help  supposing  that 
manly  men  like  Dr.  Thompson  and  Mr. 
Ayer  have  stood  up,  year  by  year,  and 
have  been  counted  all  the  time  as  be- 
ing in  favor  of  disfranchising  the  ne- 
groes here  in  North  Carolina.  But  if 
they  did  they. took  very  good  care  not 
to  let  their  negro  friends  and  allies  who 
honored  them  with  their  votes  at  the 
last  election  know  about  it.  That  fel- 
ly Manly  at  Wilmington  and  his 
friends  would  not  have  voted  for  Dr. 
Thompson  and  Mr.  Ayer  had  he  known 
that  they  favored  disfranchising  the 
negroes. 

DEMOCRATIC   RECORD   AND   DEM- 
OCRATIC PURPOSES. 

We  have  said  that  much  can  be  for- 
given the  authors  of  this  Hand-Book 
for  the  single  truth  which  they  state 
that  the  Democrats,  although  they  had 
power  for  20  years,  never  once  sought 
to  disfranchise  the  negro.  The  Repub- 
lican leaders  have  not  been  equally 
truthful  in  regard  to  this  matter.  Be- 
ginning in  1868  they  have  told  the  ne- 
groes in  every  campaign  that  if  the 
Democrats  were  successful  they  would 
disfranchise  the  negroes.  W  ell,  for 
twenty  years  the  Democrats  were  suc- 
cessful, and  never  have  they  made  a 
single  movement  to  disfranchise  the 
negro.  And  here  in  this  Hand-Book, 
issued  by  Dr.  Thompson  and  Mr.  Ayer 
(although  doubtless  paid  for  in  part 
with  Republican  money),  the  truth 
crops  out!  We  are  obliged  to  them  for 
this  single  truth!  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
the  right  of  suffrage  ■  to  whites  and 
blacks  alike  is  given  by  the  Constitu- 
tion; and  the  Constitution  cannot  be 
altered  except  by  amending  the  Consti- 
tution by  a  vote  of  the  people;  and  no 


amendment  to  the  Constitution  can 
even  be  submitted  to  the  people  until 
it  has  passed  the  Legislature  by  a  very- 
large  majority,  a  two-thirds  vote.  So 
even  if  the  Democrats  favored  dis- 
franchising anybody,  white  or  black, 
they  could  not  do  so.  It  is  forbidden 
by  the  Constitution  and  no  such  effort 
could  succeed..  But  they  have  no  such 
purpose.  The  record  shows  they  have 
had  no  such  purpose  in  the  past  and 
gives  ample  assurance  that  they  have 
no  such  purpose  for  the  future. 

Still  hitting  around  in  the  dark,  the 
Hand  Book  a  little  further  along  has 
a  labored  argument  to  prove  that  the 
Democrats  have  appointed  more  ne- 
groes to  office  than  the  Republicans 
have!  And  right  here  we  repeat  that 
quotation  from  page  9  of  that  Hand- 
Book:  "An  organized  liar  will  not 
stop  lying  simply  because  it  cannot 
find  something  to  lie  about.  It  will  in- 
vent something." 

The  intelligent  reader  will  probably 
make  his  own  application  without  the 
need  of  any  suggestion  from  us. 

THEY  CHARGE  WHITE  MEN  WITH 

INSTIGATING   NEGROES    TO 

BE  OFFENSIVE. 

There  is  another  remark  that  evi- 
dent tickled  the  fancy  of  the  authors 
of  this  remarkable  production  so  much 
that  they, had  to  repeat  it  twice  in  the 
same  chapter.  Here  it  is:  "That  in 
nearly  all  cases  in  which  a  negro  has 
made  assumptions,  either  politically  or 
socially,  in  such  a  way  as  to  be  offen- 
sive to  the  Caucasian  race,  it  has  been 
at  the  instigation  of  some  low,  venal, 
vile  wretch,  acting  as  the  tool  of  the 
Democratic  party  wire-pullers.'*'  Dr. 
Thompson  or  Mr.  Ayer,  one  or  both, 
was  so  much  in  love  with  that  sentence 
that  it  was  repeated  twice  in  the  same 
chapter.  Verily  they  have*  gotten  pret- 
ty far  over  into  the  camp  of  the  Black 
Republicans.  What  do  the  honest  Pop- 
ulists of  the  State  think" of  that?  The 
negroes  of  North  Carolina  are  geneif 
ally  very  well  behaved.  Most  of  them 
show  credit  to  their  raising.  They  see 
that  the  white  people  are  kindly,  ana 
they  themselves  are  kindly  in  turn. 
But  some  are  bad,  disreputable,  bad  m 
their  manners,  bad  in  their  conduct. 
But  Dr.  Thompson  and  Mr.  Ayer  pub- 
lish it  to  the  world  that  in  nearly  all 
such  cases  the  Democratic  party  has 
instigated  them  'to  be  offensive.  We 
think  the  intelligent  reader  will  peruse 
once  more  that  elegant  sentence  that 
"An  organized  liar  will  not  stop  lying 
simply  because  it  cannot  find  some- 
thing to  lie  about.  It  will  invent  some- 
thing." 

MANLY' S  CASE. 

A  negro  editor  at  Wilmington  named 
Manly,  who  has  cut  some  figure  as  a 


Republican  politician  in  that  city,  hav- 
ing published  in  his  newspaper  a  shock- 
ing article,  this  Hand  Book  says  of 
him:  "This  negro  makes  no  sort  of 
pretense  of  belonging  to  the  People's 
party.  He  is  officially  repudiated  and 
condemned  by  the  Republican  party ; 
and  the  UNAVOIDABLE  conclusion  is 
that  he  is  a  tool  and  scapegoat  of  the 
Democratic  machine." 

Why,  goodness,  Dr.  Thompson,  what 
do  you  and  Mr.  Ayer  mean  by  casting 
off  one  of  your  supporters.  Did  not 
this  man  vote  for  you  and  with  you? 
Is  he  not  one  of  your  allies?  Wherein 
is  he  not  quite  your  party  equal  in  your 
new  alliance?  He  is  one  of  you!  You 
birds  have  flocked  together. 

And  with  what  semblance  of  logic 
can  you  say — "and  the  unavoidable 
conclusion  is  that  he  is  a  tool  of  the 
Democratic  machine,"  because  being 
your  political  bed-fellow,  he  does  some- 
thing you  do  not  approve?  You  shall 
not  escape  being  pilloried  in  connection 
with  this  infamy  by  audaciously  at- 
tempting the  role  of  that  "organized" 
being  you  have  by  a  stroke  of  genius 
created.  Mark  the  prediction — you 
both  will  sit  with  Manly  in  some  politi- 
cal gathering  of  piebalds. 

THEIR    SPLEEN    AT    THOSE    WHO 
THREATEN   MANLY. 

As  illogical  as  this  "unavoidable  con- 
clusion" will  strike  any  man  of  ordi- 
nary intelligence,  it  is  on  a  par  with  , 
much  of  the  other  reasoning  of  the 
Hand  Book.  Indeed  the  book  is  much 
alike  throughout — sometimes  rather 
more  illogical  than  at  other  times,  but 
always  illogical!  and  very  frequently  re- 
minding the  reader  of  that  "organized" 
being  whose   fame   it  perpetuates. 

For  instance  it  was  reported  that 
Manly  received  an  anonymous  note 
warning  him  that  he  must  leave  Wil- 
mington in  twenty-four  hours,  and 
here  is  the  .way  the  Hand  Book  nar- 
rates that  incident:  "Another  low, 
vile  Democratic  machine  tool  wrote  an 
anonymous  note  to  the  negro  stating 
that  he  must  leave  the  town  in  twenty- 
four  hours,  or  caused  a  spreading  of 
"the  report  that  such  a  note  had  been 
written." 

Now,  why  should  the  writer  of  .that 
note  be  stigmatized  as  "low  and  vile?" 
Because  he  wrote  an  anonymous  note  7 
No,  as  unmanly  as  that  was,  that  was 
not  the  reason  for  this  strong  language. 
No.  It  was  a  mere  senseless  effort  to 
strike  at  those  who  condemn  Manly, 
and  to  hit  at  the  Democratic  party — at 
the  148,000  white  men  in  the  State,  who 
did  not,  as  Manly  did,  vote  for  Dr. 
Thompson  and  Mr.  Ayer  for  their  pres- 
ent places,  forgetting  that  the  honest 
Populists  are  quite  as  indignant  as  the 
Democrats  are  at  Manly's  sentiments. 
While   not   displaying     any     sympathy 


-with  Manly  in  this  matter,  the  authors 
of  this  book  still  try  to  vent  spleen  at 
others  who  manifested  anger  at  his 
atrocious  utterances. 

Do ,  the  honest  Populists  of  North 
Carolina  propose  to  give  countenance 
to  a  hand  book  that  speaks  for  them  on 
such  lines,  or  will  they  repudiate  it  and 
its  authors?  How  defiled  with  Repub- 
lican pitch,  have  these  office-holders 
become,  feeding  on  their  fine  salaries, 
and  brought  in  daily  contact  with  Re- 
publican politicians  who  train  them  to 
their  own  uses  and  purposes!  The 
principles  and  purposes  of  the  Popu- 
list party  have  long  since  been  for- 
gotten by  them;  all  that  is  remembered 
is  our  salaries  provided  us  by  the  fa- 
vor of  the  negro  voters  of  the  State. 

And  is  it  not  surpassingly  strange 
that  this  Hand-Book  says  nothing  of 
John  T.  Howe,  the  travelling  agent  of 
Manly' s  paper,  Howe  being  the  Rad- 
ical Republican  Representative  from 
New  Hanover  county  in  the  last  Leg- 
islature and  his  Republicanism  having 
been  recently  recognized  and  rewarded 
by  Collector  Duncan,  who  appointed 
him  storekeeper  and  gauger?  Is  he  not 
one  of  their  brother  fusion  office  hold- 
ers, although  a  member  of  the  negro 
press  ? 


What  the  Hand-Book  is  Not,  and  Its 
Charges. 

Parties  are  interesting  to  the  people 
because  of  what  they  propose,  and 
hand  books  generally  indicate  the  rea- 
sons and  arguments  for  these  proposed 
measures.  But  as  we  have  elsewhere 
said  there  is  no  discussion  of  principles 
in  this  book;  there  are  no  measures 
proposed;  there  are  no  arguments  to 
show  that  any  political  course  of  ac- 
tion is  better  than  another;  there  is 
not  a  single  appeal  to  the  voters  to  do 
anything  to  promote  the  public  wel- 
fare, or  to  reform  evils,  or  to  advocate 
measures  that  would  redound  to  the 
happiness,  prosperity  or  glory  of  tne 
people.  On  such  matters  this  book  Is 
as  silent  as  the  carcas  of  a  dead  dog. 

Indeed,  being  a  Republican-Populist 
production  it  could  advocate  no  princi- 
ple or  measures,  because  whatever  it 
might  say  in  favor  of  Populist  princi- 
ples or  measures  would  antagonize  the 
Republicans,  and  whatever  it  may  say 
of  Republican  purposes  would  be  out 
of  place  in  an  alleged  Populist  hand 
book.  Hence  its  silence  on  all  such 
matters. 

Not  the  advocate  of  any  political 
measure,  nor  of  anything  that  would 
benefit  the  people  or  State,  its  sole  aim 
is  to   belittle     the     Democratic     party. 


This  it  thinks  can  safely  be  done  with- 
out giving  offense  to  either  Republican 
or  Populist.  In  trying  to  do  this,  it 
seeks  to  show  that  the  Democrats  op- 
pose negro  rule  merely  to  get  a  chance 
to  plunder  the  State.  And  in  order  to 
show  that  the  Democrats  have  plun- 
dered the  State,  it  criticises  and  com- 
ments on  various  items  of  expenditure 
during  the  past  twenty  years,  without 
any  particular  regard  to  reason,  sense 
or  justice.  It  twists  and  distorts  facts 
and  withholds  information  in  order  to 
make  the  people  believe  that  some 
transaction  that  was  an  entirely  proper 
one,  was  a  mean  fraud.  And  although 
most  of  these  transactions  are  of  very 
small  consequence  and  the  charges  of 
the  Hand  Book  are  absolutely  frivo- 
lous, not  worthy  of  serious  considera- 
tion, yet  we  have  felt  inclined  to  no- 
tice them.  And  on  the  whole  we  may 
say  it  is  a  grand  testimonial  to  the  in- 
tegrity and  high  conduct  of  the  Demo- 
cratic party  that  during  its  twenty 
years  of  service  no  greater  or  heavier 
charges  can  be  brought  against  it  than 
the  little  pin  darts  contained  in  this 
book;  frivolous  in  their  nature,  and  be- 
neath the  consideration  of  the  people 
in  a  great  campaign  for  white  supre- 
macy. 

Quaere:  Why  did  Dr.  Thompson  and 
Mr.  Ayer  offer  to  fuse  with  the  Demo- 
crats? 

A  SAMPLE  CHARGE. 

Under  naming  head  lines  this  book 
tells  how  the  newspapers  of  North  Car- 
olina fattened  at  the  public  trough, 
literally  swilled  mash;  and  it  turns 
out  to  be  only  this.  . .  hen  the  natural 
oyster  beds  were  laid  off  in  the  great 
sounds,  it  was  necessary  to  give  notice 
to  the  public  where  they  were  located, 
so  that  they  could  not  be  treated  as 
"public  land,"  open  for  entry  as  the 
whole  body  of  the  sound,  not  natural 
beds,  was.  In  order  to  give  this  infor- 
mation to  the  public  certain  advertise- 
ments had  to  be  made;  and  these  ad- 
vertisements were  sent  to  the  five  pa- 
pers that  had  the  most  circulation  in 
those  parts.  What  a  shocking  crime, 
on  the  part  of  the  wicked  Democrats  to 
give  this  notice  !  !  It  is  not  pretended 
that  the  papers  got  too  much;  their 
charges  for  advertising  were  very  low 
for  the  work  done.  But  this  Hand 
Book  charges  that  the  press  of  the 
State  fattened  on  a  job!! 

CAPT.  COKES  SALES  OF  REPORT. 

There  is  a  chapter  in  this  Hand  Book 
containing  the  same  statements  and 
figures  that  Dr.  Thompson  used  in  his 
Clinton  speech,  relative  to  the  office 
of  Secretary  of  State,  the  falsity  of 
many  of  which  statements  Capt  Cooke 
has  already  so  thoroughly  exposed  that 


Dr.  Thompson  will  probably  wear  a 
badge  during  the  remainder  of  his  life. 
On  page  33  is  a  statement  of  returns 
made  of  sales  of  Supreme  court  re- 
ports, in  preparing  which  the  compiler 
fell  into  error.  From  that  statement  it 
would  appear  that  no  sales  were  made 
in  the  years  1892  and  1894;  and  indeed 
Dr.  Thompson  in  his  speech  at  Clin- 
ton, which  has  been  published  in  pam- 
phlet and  widely  distributed,  specifi- 
cally asserts  that  no  reports  of  sales 
were  made  for  those  years,  and  then 
declares  that  he  knows  some  sales  were 
made  in  those  years.  The  statement 
made  in  the  Hand  Book,  and  by  Dr. 
Thompson  is  as  follows; 

Sales  in  1890 $  1,966.27 

"      1891 2,618.01 

"      1892 

"      1893 621.12 

"      1894 

"      1895 2,330.6C 

The  above  is  inaccurate. 

THE    CORRECT    FIGURES. 

The  Auditor's  report  for  1893,  at  page 
23,  has  this  entry:  "January,  1893.  Re- 
ceived of  Octavius  Coke,  Secretary  of 
State,  for  sale  of  Supreme  court  re- 
ports for  fourth  quarter,   1892,   $621.12." 

So  there  were  sales  reported  for  1892. 
And  again  the  Auditor's  report  for  1895, 
page  23,  has  this  entry:  1895,  January 
1.  Received  of  Octavius  Coke,  Secre- 
tary of  State,  for  sale  of  Supreme  couit 
reports  to  date,  $1,188.69."  And  so  those 
sales  were  "up  to  date" — necessarily  in- 
cluding the  whole  time  from  the  last 
Settlement  to  date,  embracing  there- 
fore the  year  1893  as  well  as  1891;  "but 
not  including  1895  at  all. 

From  that  date  up  to  September  1, 
1895,  Col.  Coke  paid  in  $1,142  because  of 
sales   of   Supreme   court   reports. 

And  so  the  record  is  for  1892,  $621.12; 
for  1893  and  1894,  $1,188.69,  and  lor  1895 
$1,142. 

There  are  reasonable  explanations 
why  these  returns  are  not  so  large  as 
in  the  years  immediately  preceding  and 
following.  The  number  of  law- 
yers who  buy  Supreme  court  reports 
is  about  300.  The  sales  for  each  new 
volume  ought  to  bring  is  about  $600. 
Some  time  before  Col.  Coke  came  in, 
the  State  had  bought  out  Mr.  Mason's 
large  stock  of  reports,  many  of  which 
were  quoted  from  $7  to  $10  a  volume, 
and  these  were  sold  by  Col.  Saunders 
at  $3.00  a  volume.  The  lawyers  quick- 
ly supplied  themselves  with  what  they 
wanted  from  that  stock  as  far  it  went, 
and  then  the  active  demand  for  those 
books  ceased.  The  demand  for  re- 
ports was  after  that  largely  limited 
to  the  current  volume,  until  the  "re- 
prints" were  offered.  These  reprints 
for  the  most  part  came  on  the  market 
after    1895,    and    the     sale     of     reports 


reached  their  high  water  mark  in  1896 
under    Cooke's    administration. 

There  is  a  further  statement  that 
can  be.  made  about  Capt.  Coke's  sales 
of  reports.  He  did  not  sea  any  from 
his  office.  By  a  contract,  which  was  in 
existence  when  he  came  into  office,  a 
reputable  bookseller  in  Raleigh  had  the 
actual  handling  and  sale  of  the  re- 
ports. Capt.  Coke  could  only  pay  the 
money  into  the  State  Treasury  after 
he  received  it  from  the  bookseller;  and 
we  think  it  will  appear  that  the  book- 
seller got  into  financial  trouble  and 
Capt.  Coke  met  delay  in  obtaining  the 
cash  from  him,  and  therefore  there  was 
delay  in  making  the  payment  for  1893 
and  1894. 

There  is  absolutely  nothing  in  this 
business  that  reflects  on  the  honesty 
of  Capt.  Coke,  and  those  who  impeach 
his  honesty  with  mean  insinuations 
merely  take  advantage  of  his  being 
dead  to  assail  him.  But  say  the  au- 
thors of  this  Hand  Book,  while  the 
Democratic  Legislatures  appointed 
committees  to  examine  the  books  of  the 
Auditor's  office  and  of  the  Treasurer's 
office,  why  did  they  never  appoint  a 
committee  to  examine  the  books  of  tne 
Secretary's  office?  "Well,  we  will  an- 
swer by  asking  another.  Why  did  not 
the  Republican-Populist  Legislature 
of  1895,  when  Coke  was  living,  and  the 
Legislature  of  1897  appoint  a  commit- 
tee to  examine  that  office?  It  is  the 
same  reason  in  each  case.  It  was  not 
thought  necessary.  It  was  never  pro- 
posed by  anyone.  Neither  Saunders 
nor  Coke,  nor  Cooke  would  ever  have 
objected:  but  notwithstanding  the  Au- 
ditor's report  presented  to  the  Legisla- 
tors, Republicans  and  Democrats  alike, 
year  by  year,  the  sales,  receipts  and 
payments  made  by  the  Secretary,  no 
one  ever  thought  these  reports  made 
an    examination    necessary. 

Why  did  Dr.  Thompson  and  Mr.  Ayer 
offer   to   fuse   with   the   Democrats? 


Penitentiary  Matters. 

The  Hand  Book  contains  some  state- 
ments from  convicts  to  the  effect  that 
their  treatment  under  Democratic  rule 
was  cruel  and  barbarous  and  brutal. 
We  do  not  doubt  that  in  every  peniten- 
tiary some  convicts  can  be  found  ready 
to  give  testimony  against  a  former  op- 
position administration  to  a  new  one, 
whose  favor  thev  might  win  by  such 
a  course.  They  become  political  allies 
as  it  were  and  could  expect  some  par- 
ticularly favorable  treatment  at  the 
hands  of  their  allies  who  make  use  of 
them  for  their  political  purposes. 

Every  two  years  a  legislative  com- 
mittee .composed  of  both  Republicans 
and  Democrats  have  the  affairs  of  the 


10 


penitentiary  under  their  consideration, 
and  no  scandals  connected  with  the 
management  of  the  penitentiary  under 
Democratic  rule  have  heretofore  been 
brought  to  the  attention  of  the  Legis- 
lature or  the  people. 

REPUBLICAN    BRUTALITY. 

But  since  this  Republican  adminis- 
tration has  come  in,  we  have  noticed 
a  letter  in  the  newspapers  giving  a 
statement  ef  crueltv  and  brutalitv  to 
one  o  fthe  convicts  under  the  new  re- 
gime, and  we  also  see  a  statement  that 
one  of  the  guards  t  whipped  a  convict 
to  death.  It  is  stated  that  Governor 
Russell  felt  it  proper  to  have  a  bench 
warrant  issued  for  the  arest  of  Jim 
Sears,  the  guard,  who  whipped  a  con- 
vict, Jim  Lowe,  on. the  Halifax  farm, 
three  times  in  one  day,  and  whipped 
him  so  unmercifully  that  the  convict 
died  the  next  day,  and  the  doctor  re- 
ported to  the  authorities  that  he  had 
been  whipped  to  death.  Thereupon 
Gov.  Russell  caused  proceedings  to  be 
had  for  the  arrest  of  the  guard,  but 
the   fellow   had   run   away. 

The  alleged  Populist  Hand  Book 
tries  to  argue  that  "Jim  Sears"  was 
the  same  as  "N.  Sears"  and  that  "N. 
Sears"  was  employed  bv  the  peniten- 
tiary authorities  in  1896.  And,  says 
this  illogical  Hand  Book,  "this  is  con- 
clusive evidence  of  the  existence  of 
brutal  and  barbarous  deeds  under  that 
(Democratic)  management!"  But  sup- 
pose Jim  Sears  was  not  "N.  Sears!" 
Jim  Sears,  as  brutal  as  he  is,  has  a 
perfect  right  to  his  own  identity. 
And  as  this  murderous  whipping  was 
done  under  Republican-Populist  man- 
agement, how  is  it  "conclusive  evidence 
of  brutal  and  barbarous  deeds  under 
Democratic  management?"  But  that 
is  the  sort  of  stuff  Dr.  Thompson  and 
Mr.  Ayer  print  as  coming  from  the 
Populist  ex&cutive  committee.  How  do 
the  intelligent,  honest  Populists  like  it? 

The  Democrats  have  nothing  to  re- 
proach themselves  with  in  connection 
with  the  management  of  the  peniten- 
tiary. Thev  appointed  men  of  high 
character  to  manage  that  institution; 
and  men  of  known  humanity  were  the 
superintendents;  and  the  physician  in 
charge  is  unusually  esteemed  in  North 
Carolina  as  a  Christian  gentleman. 
And  there  was  a  regulation  requiring 
two  directors  to  visit  every  convict 
camp  every  month  in  the  year  to  see 
for  themselves  that  the  convicts  were 
properly  treated. 

DEMOCRATIC    OFFICIALS. 

We  give  a  list  of  the  Democratic  offi- 
cials to  whom  fhe  care  of  this  insti- 
tution was  committed.  David  M.  Car- 
ter was  the  first  president  of  the 
board  of  directors  and  Mr.  Thos.  H. 
Briggs  was  vice-president.  C.  G.  Yates, 


G.  W.  Thompson  and  G.  S.  Cole  were 
the  other  directors.  Mr.  W.  J.  Hicks 
was  warden.  D.  C.  Murray  steward 
and  Dr.  "William  Little,  physician. 
Subsequently  E.  R.  Stamps,  Henry  R. 
Bryan,  M.  T.  Leach,  A.  D.  Brown,  C. 
M.  Cooke,  J.  W.  Cooper,  F.  L.  Reid,  W. 
L.  Steele,  L.  M.  Scott,  E.  L.  Vaughan, 
Leonard  Henderson,  W  C.  Fields,  P. 
F.  Faison,  H.  B.  Adams,  T.  L.  Emery, 
Lee  S.  Overman,  A.  B.  Young,  Frank 
Stronach  W.  J.  White,  B.  W.  Ballard, 
T.  S.  Dale,  S.  C.  Rankin,  R.  H.  Ricks, 
R.  E.  Rvburn  and  W.  H.  Smith  be- 
came members  of  the  board,  either  to 
fill  vacancies  or  by  original  appoint- 
ment. 

Dr.  G.  W.  McGee  was  physician  from 
1880  till  recently.'  Mr.  Hicks,  whose  hu- 
manity is  so  well  known  that  recently 
he  has  been  appointment  superintend- 
ent of  th3  Oxford  Orphan  Asylum,  was 
in  charge  of  the  convicts  as  warden 
and  as  general  supervisor  during  the 
Democratic    control. 

When  a  few  years  ago  the  office  of 
superintendent  was  made  Mr.  A.  Deaz- 
er  was  appointed  to  that  place. 

These  gentlemen  are  men  of  high 
character  and  their  names  give  every 
assurance  that  no  brutality  was  al- 
lowed under  their  management, 
cipline  might  sometimes  require  se- 
verity, for  it  would  be  wonderful  if 
among  the  convict  force  there  were 
not  some  unruly  men.  It  will  be  a 
long  time  before  Hal  Ayer  and  Dr. 
Thompson  will  be  able  to  persuade  the 
people  of  North  Carolina  that  convicts 
were  treated  cruelly  under  these  men. 
We  cannot  help  remarking  that  in 
this  chapter  on  the  penitentiary  this 
alleged  Populist  Hand  Book  makes  no 
reference  whatever  to  the  fact  that 
Governor-  Russell  had  removed  John 
R.  Smith,  the  superintendent,  on 
charges  of  stealing  and  squandering 
the  State's  property,  and  that  this 
same  alleged  Hand  Book  is  silent  on 
the  fact  that  information  about  the 
penitentiary  was  refused.  What  do 
the  honest  Populists  of  the  State  have 
to  say  about  such  a  remarkable  silence 
on  the  part  of  a  Hand  Book  that  is 
issued  in  their  name?  As  a  Republi- 
can document,  such  silence  would  be 
expected;  but  as  a  Populist  hand-book 
such  silence  is  extraordinary.  Does  it 
not  show  where  Hal  Aver  and  Dr. 
Thompson  are  trying  to  land  the  Popu- 
lists of  the  State  right  into  the  bosom 
of  the   Republican  party? 

Why  did  Dr.  Thompson  and  Mr.  Ayer 
offer   to   fuse   with   the   Democrats? 

REPUBLICAN    EXPENDITURES    AT 
THE    PENITENTIARY. 

This  very  remarkable  book  contains 
a  chapter  on  the  penitentiary  numbered 
chapter  six,  and  in  this  they  show  their 
utter  disregard  of  all  idea  of  fair  deal- 


11 


ing  with  the  public  and  with  public 
matters.  They  tell  their  readers  that 
during  the  20  years  of  Democratic  rule 
large  sums  of  money  was  appropriated 
for  the  penitentiary;  but  they  fail  to 
say  that  it  was  during  that  time  that 
the  great  buildings  were  constructe'd 
and  that  the  convicts  were  worked 
chiefly  on  works  of  internal  improve- 
ments. Nor  do  thev  mention  or  con- 
trovert the  fact  that  it  was  during 
Democratic  administration  that  the 
policy  of  making  the  penitentiary  self- 
sustaining  was  adopted  and  that 
after  that  a  steady  approach  was 
made  to  it,  till  1896— the  last  year 
of  Democratic  management — it  was  ab- 
solutely self-sustaining,  onlv  $5,000 
having  been  drawn  from  the  public 
treasury  and  that  having  been  replac- 
ed before  the  end  of  the  year. 

They  then  go  into  a  speculation 
about  what  mav  be  the  proceeds  of 
the  crop  of  1898  and  they  GUESS  from 
these  assumed  figures  that  the  credit 
side  of  the  account  will  be  larger  than 
the  debit  side.  But  all  honest  men 
who  read  this  chapter  should  remem- 
ber that  in  July  we  tried  to  get  a  look 
at  the  books  and  were  refused,  and  to 
this  day  we  assert  that  no  such  report 
has  been  made  public  for  the  year  1897 
as  is  required  by  law.  It  is  therefore 
impossible  for  us  to  go  into  the  details 
of  the  mismanagement  of  this  insti- 
tution. We  have  reason  to  believe  and 
we  assert  that  the  report  for  1897  will 
show  Lhat  the  present  management 
paid  more  than  $9,000  that  year  in  sal- 
aries and  fees  than  did  the  Democrats 
for  the  year  1896.  We  humbly  sub- 
mit that  as  the  management  has  stead- 
ily declined  to  make  public  a  detail- 
ed report  as  required  by  law  that  the 
public  should  not  accept  the  partial  re- 
port made  bv  Chairman  Dockery  and 
Superintendent  Smith  and  the  state- 
ment contained  in  the  Thompson-Ayer 
publication  as  worth  much.  Let  us 
have  the  official  report  detailed  and 
made  according  to  law  and  then  we 
can  see  how  the  matter  stands.  We 
prefer  to   see  the  books. 

"Do  you  see?' 


The  Public  Printing. 

This  Hand  Book  has  a  chapter  on 
the  public  printing,  in  which  much  is 
attempted  to  be  made  out  of  the  fact 
that  the  contractors  to  do  the  public 
printing  under  Democratic  rule  made 
some  money  out  of  it.  Why,  bless  us! 
that  is  why  thev  took  the  contract. 
The  law  until  1897  fixed  the  prices 
which  th<  State  would  pav  for  type- 
setting, binding  and  press  work.  These 
prices  were  not  high.  The  Legislature 
made  a  contract  with  some  one  to  have 


the  public  work  done  at  these  figures. 
The  contractor  could  not  do  the  work 
himself;  he  had  to  have  it  done  by 
many  printers;  bv  many  binders  and 
pressman.  It  was  not  material  to  the 
State  what  printers,  binders  and  press- 
men the  contractor  employed,  or 
whether  he  had  the  work  done  in  one 
printing  office  or  another  so  that  it  was 
well  done.  The  contractor  might  have 
made  more  money  by  doing  the  work  in 
his  own  office,  or  he  might  have  made 
less.  He  took  the  contract  to  make 
some  profit  and  he  handled  the  work 
to  the  best  advantage.  The  sole  ques- 
tion that  arises  is,  were  the  prices  paid 
by  the  State  too  high?  The  prices  paid 
by  the  State  were  not  high,  but  rea- 
sonable. 

The  Hand  Book  gives  the  figures  un- 
der Democratic  rule  as  follows: 
From  July,  1891,  to  July,  1892.. $15,196.68 
From  July,  1892  to  July,  1893...  16.796.46 
From  July,  1893  to  July,  1894...  14,509.19- 
From  July,  1894  to  July,  1895...  19,481.52: 

And  under  Republican-Populist  rule: 

From  July,  1895,  to  July,  1896.. $16,699.87 
From  July,  1896  to  July,  1897...  24,713.58; 

Under  Democratic  rule  the  cost  to  the 
State  for  a  period  of  two  years  was 
about  $33,000  under  Populist-Republi- 
can rule  about  $41,000.  It  suited  the  au- 
thors of  this  alleged  Populist  Hand 
Book  to  mix  up  these  figures  and  to 
strike  an  average  of  them;  but  for  our 
part  we  prefer  keepingthe  Republican- 
Fusion  figures  separate  from  the  Dem- 
ocratic figures. 

In  1897  a  change  was  made  in  the 
manner  of  having  this  public  printing 
done,  and  this  Hand  Book  states  that 
it  cost  for  the  year  July,  1897,  to  July, 
1898,  only  $10,280.  We  don't  know 
how  that  is.  Those  figures  have  not 
been  printed  in  the  Auditor's  report  as 
yet,  and  we  do  not  accept  them  as 
correct.  The  authors  of  this  Hand 
Book  may  have  made  a  mistake.  The 
public  prjnting  accounts  are  not  al- 
ways right.  Treasurer  Worth  says 
that  Stewart  Bros.,  the  Republican- 
Populist  public  printers,  drew  from 
the  State  ten  thousand  dollars  more 
than  they  were  entitled  to;  while  on 
the  other  hand  Stewart  Bros,  not  only 
swear  that  it  is  not  so,  but  claim  that 
the  State  still  owes  them  a  large  sum 
for  printing.  The  question  of  which 
is  right  is  now  in  court  and  we  will 
have  to  wait  until  that  suit  is  finished 
to  know  how  it  is.  And  in  like  manner, 
we  cannot  accept  the  mere  say  so  of 
this  Hand  Book  about  the  cost  of  pub- 
lic printing  last  year  when  the  Audi- 
tor's report  has  not  even  been  printed. 

Indeed,  if  Treasurer  Worth  is  right, 
then  it  would  appear  that  there  was 
much  looseness  in  auditing  and  pay- 
ing the  accounts  of  the  public  printer 


12 


tinder  the  present  administration,  and 
as  Mr.  Hal  Ayer  is  the  chief  compiler 
of  this  Hand  Book,  and  also  Auditor 
and  we  suppose  had  the  auditing  of 
Stewart's  bills,  we  cannot  trust  his 
mere  statements,  for  if  might  turn  out 
that  he  is  the  very  embodiment  of  that 
"organized"  being  of  whom  he  speaks 
with  such  familiar  knowledge.  In 
passing,  we  might  say  that  Mr.  Hal 
Ayer's  friend,  Stewart  Bros.,  not  only 
did  not  do  the  work  themselves,  but 
sent  a  part  of  it  to  Richmond,  Va., 
where  it  was  done.  And  while  we  are 
on  this  subject,  we  may  refresh  Mr. 
Ayer's  memory  by  adverting  to  a 
statement  which  Stewart  Bros.,  pub- 
lished in  the  newspapers  and  Mr.  Ayer 
has  never  denied  in  the  papers,  or  any- 
where else  that  we  ever  heard  of. 
Stewart  Bros,  say  that  before  taking 
away  the  public  printing  from  them 
Mr.  Ayer  went  up  to  Winston  to  see 
them,  and  said  "If  I  let  out  this  public 
printing  at  Raleigh,  it  will  be  worth 
$1,500  to  me  personally.  Now,  what 
have  you  got  to  say  to  that."  And 
Stewart  Bros,  replied,  "I  have  nothing 
to  say  to  that."  And  so  the  public 
printing    was   let   out   at   Raleigh. 


Why  the  Democrats  Squall  Them- 
selves Hoarse. 

Some  comment  has  heretofore  been 
made  that  the  Populists  have  advoca- 
ted reforms  and  have  pledged  them- 
selves to  cut  down  high  salaries  and 
curtail  expenses;  but  that  notwith- 
standing these  Populist  pledges,  the 
Fusion  administration  had  spent  in 
the  years  1895,  1896  and  1897,  $380,000 
more  than  the  Democrats  spent  in  the 
years  1892,  1893  and  1894.  Indeed,  the 
Populists  in  the  platform  adopted  May 
17,  1898",  said:  "In  order  to  keep  our 
public  servants  in  thorough  touch  and 
sympathy  with  the  oppressed  masses 
and  to  check  to  some  extent  the  scram- 
ble for  office,  we  demand  a  reduction 
of  salaries  until  such  time  as  through 
an  increase  of  the  currency  the  price 
of  property  and  products  will  justify 
the   present  rates." 

Now  what  does  this  alleged  Populist 
Hand  Book  have  to  say  about  this  in- 
crease in  expenditures  of  $380,000  in 
three  years!  We  quote:  "And  yet 
when  an  anti-Democratic  Legislature 
authorizes  an  increased  expenditure  of 
$380,000  for  three  years,  these  Demo- 
cratic campaigners  squall  themselves 
bbarse.  tear  their  hair,  foam  at  the 
mouth,  and  would  make  the  people  be- 
lieve that  the  State  is  being  run  into 
wreck  and  ruin."  Now  what  a  com- 
ment is  this  for  an  alleged  Populist- 
Hand  Book  to  make.     How  do  the  hon- 


est Populists  admire  that  sort  of  lan- 
guage, in  view  of  their  platform 
declaration? 

AND  WHY  THOMPSON  OBJECTS  TO 
THE    SQUALLING. 

But  then  this  matter  of  reducing  fees 
and  salaries  and  expenditures  is  a  very 
sore  and  irritating  subject  to  Dr. 
Thompson  and  Mr.  Ayer.  What  do  you 
suppose  Dr.  Thompson's  compensation 
is?  Six  thousand  dollars  a  year!  Why 
it  is  the  same  as  both  the  Governor 
and  the  Treasurer  together  get.  Just 
think  of  it;  one  man  in  poor  old  North 
Carolina  getting  $6,000,  year  after  year, 
as  a  public  servant!  and  that,  too, 
while  the  farmer  is  getting  only  5  cents 
a  pound  for  his  cotton.  And  he  is  not 
worked  hard  either.  He  has  plenty  of 
spare  time  on  his  hands  to  prepare 
hands  books  and  make  speeches  in  the 
interest  of  the  gold  standard  Republi- 
can party.  No  wonder  he  rides  a  high 
horse  whenever  the  subject  is  mention- 
ed of  curtailing  public  expenses  and 
cutting  down  salaries.  And  he,  like 
Auditor  Ayer  who  also  has  a  fine  sal- 
ary, owes  his  salary  to  the  negroes — to 
Manly  of  Wilmington  and  the  other 
black  Republicans.  Hence  all  their 
strong  language  against  tne  white  men 
of  the  State  who  are  opposed  to  negro 
rule — because  as  a  part  and  parcel  of 
negro  rule  Thompson  and  Ayer,  no  less 
than  John  R.  Smiih  and  Russel,  enjoy 
their  large  salaries;  and  the  poor  peo- 
ple mav  suffer  and  be  hanged! 

DON'T  YOU  SEE! 

Ayer,  and  Smith  of  penitentiary  fame, 
and  Thompson  are  quite  opposed  to 
giving  practical  effect  .  to  the  demand 
of  the  Populist  party  for  salary  reduc- 
tion, and  when  the  fact  is  stated  that 
under  the  last  three  years  of  fusion 
rule  the  expenditures  were  $380,000 
more  than  ever  before,  they  try  to  ridi- 
cule it  by  saying  that  Democratic  cam- 
paigners squall  themselves  hoarse,  tear 
their  hair  and  foam  at  the  mouth.  And 
again  we  ask  what  do  the  honest  Pop- 
ulists think  of  such  an  exhibition  be- 
ing displayed  in  the  hand  book  issued 
m  their  name? 


The  Agricultural  Department. 

In  this  wonderful  production  pre- 
pared and  published  in  the  interest  of 
the  Republican  party,  but  named  by  its 
authors  "People's  Party  Hand  Book," 
to  give  it  a  respectable  reception  by 
the  Populist,  Dr.  Thompson  and  Audi- 
tor Ayer  head  their  chapter  fifteen 
"The  Department  of  Agriculture;"  and 
they  seem  to  think  tney  have  utterly 
destroyed  the  Democratic  party  when 
thev  state  that  the  Democratic  admin- 


13 


istration  spent  $67,470.79,  while  the  Re- 
publican Fusion  administration  spent 
only  $37,345.25.  If  they  desired  tfc  be 
fair  they  would  have  stated  that  dur- 
ing the  Democratic  period  selected  by 
them  large  additions  were  made  to  tfie 
museum  and  other  improvements  were 
made  that  cost  $17,000.  That  the  book 
"North  Carolina  and  its  Resources," 
was  printed  that  cost  "$5,000.  That 
$6,000  had  been  lent  to  the  Agricultural 
College  in  that  year;  that .  insurance 
for  a  period  of  three  years  and  consid- 
erable repairs  to  the  building,  were 
paid  for  in  that  year;  and  that  the 
$67,000  alleged  to  have  been  spent  in- 
cluded about  $13,000  in  cash  turned  over 
to  the  present  board.  But  this  is  an- 
other instance  of  the  unfairness  of  this 
Book.  Deduct  these  "extraordinary" 
items;   or  how  stands  the  account? 

But  then  it  seems  they  either  do  not 
know  or  they  do  not  care  to  consider 
the  purpose  for  which  tnis  department 
was  established,  or  its  expenditures 
made.  The  farmers  will  understand 
that  a  considerable  sum  is  collected 
each  year  from  a  tax  on  fertilizers  to 
run  this  department.  The  great  ques- 
tion in  which  the  farmers  are  deeply 
concerned  is  HOW  is  this  department 
run?  How  and  for  what  purposes  is 
this  money  spent?  Is  it  spent  in  the 
interest  of  the  farmers  or  in  the  in- 
terest of  hangers  on  around  the  de- 
partment? These  are  the  great,  the  im- 
portant questions;  and  as  Dr. Thompson 
and  Auditor  Ayer  have  access  to  the 
books  of  the  department  they  could 
have  given  the  farmers  this  informa- 
tion if  they  would.  But  the  book  has 
not  a  word  from  them  on  that  score. 
They  only  tell  us  that  $37,345.25  was 
spent.  They  do  not  desire  to  tell  us  for 
what  purpose.  No,  they  do  not  tell  us 
where  a  dollar  of  that  money  went. 

THE  CLOSED  BOOKS.       * 

On  July  14th,  1898— two  months  ago— 
Mr.  Simmons  addressed  a  letter  to 
John  R.  Smith,  Commissioner  of  Agri- 
culture, asking  for  this  very  informa- 
tion, and  up  to  this  day  not  a  word  has 
been  heard  from  it.  So  it  is  impossible 
for  the  farmers  to  know  how  much  of 
this  money  was  spent  in  their  interest 
and  how  much  in  some  body  else's. 

It  is  rumored  that  large  fees  have 
been  paid  to  lawyers.  Whether  this  be 
true  or  not  the  farmer  does  not  know. 

The  chapter  is  silent  as  to  the  name 
of  the  Commissioner  of  Agriculture  and 
therein  the  compilers  are  sensible;  for 
Governor  Russell  told  Mr.  Baily  that 
the  man  who  is  now  the  Commissioner 
is  a  bad  man.  After  he  had  demonsta- 
ted  his  utter  unfitness  to  manage  the 
penitentiary  he  is  transferred  to  this 
farmers  department  to  manage  that; 
and  he  is   now   going  over     the     State 


holding  farmers'  institutes,  which  the 
farmers  refuse  to  attend.  What  a 
farce.  John  R.  Smith  holding  farmers' 
institutes!  How  much  of  this  fund  is 
wasted  in  this  farce?  Come  now,  Dr. 
Thompson  and  Mr.  Ayer,  the  farmers 
would  like  to  know.     "Don't  you  see." 

A    FAIR    COMPARISON. 

While  access  to  the  books  has  been 
denied  us;  we  have  some  information 
as  to  certain  matters  that  bear  oa 
these  figures  given  by  Dr.  Thompson 
and   Mr.   Ayer. 

First  they  say  that  the  expenditures 
in  the  Agricultural  Department  from 
June  14,  1896,  to  June  14,  1897,  under 
Democratic  management  was  $67,470.79. 
The  fiscal  year  of  that  department 
runs  from  November  to  November,  and 
it  might  be  that  an  undue  proportion 
of  the  expenditures  may  have  fallen 
within  those  parts  of  two  fiscal  years. 
But,  however,  that  might  be,  in  the 
year  1896,  the  Agricultural  Department 
made  a  great  many  special  expendi- 
tures. First  they  bought  two  city  lots 
at  a.  cost  of  $1,600;  next  theyerected  an 
additional  building  that  cost  $10,000; 
ihen  they  put  in  a  heating  apparatus 
that  cost  $7,000;  then  they  issued  a  book., 
called  North  Carolina  and  its  Re- 
sources at  a  cost  of  $5,000;  then  they 
lent  to  the  A.  and  M.  College  to  build 
the  Horticultural  building  $5,000;  and 
also  $1,000  besides; then  they  insured  the 
property  for  three  years  and  also  spent 
a  considerable  sum  in  repairs.  That 
makes  something  more  than  $30,000  of 
expenditures  that  are  not  to  be  found 
;n  the  accounts  for  the  succeeding 
year.  Then  they  turned  over  to  the 
new  board  $13,000  in  cash,  and  we  have 
reason  to  believe  that  that  item  was 
added  in  by  Mr.  Ayer  to  get  his  footing 
of  $67,000.  Although  of  that  we  can- 
not be  certain,  as  we  have  no  access 
to  the  books. 

The  ordinary  expenditures  of  the 
Agricultural  Department  under  Demo- 
cratic rule  ran  between  $24,000  and  $26,- 
000  a  year;  all  other  expenses  were  of 
an  unusual  nature;  but  were  for  the 
benefit  of  the  department. 

NEW   BOARD   EXPENDITURES. 

The  pas  of  officials  under  Demo- 
cratic rule  was: 

Commissioner $1,850.00 

Secretary 1,500.00 

2  Regular  Inspectors 2,000.00 

Curator 1,000.00 

Janitor 360.00 


$6,710.00 


Three  special  Inspectors  were  employ- 
ed a  part  of  the  time  at  $75  a  month. 

The   present  administration   pays  for^ 
the   same   service    (unless   some   of   the* 


14 


salaries    have     been      recently  raised, 
which  has  been  alleged): 

Commissioner,   say $1,850.00 

Secretary,  say 1,500.00 

2  regular  Inspectors 2,000.00 

Curator 1,200.00 

An  Assistant  Curator 360.00 

A  Mailing  Clerk 1,000.00 

2  Janitors 720.00 


$8,630.00 

Five  Special  Inspectors  at  $75  a 
month,  a  part  of  the  time,  amounting 
according  to  the  Hand  Book  to  $900 
more  than  the  Democrats  paid;  so  that 
the  same  service  costs  now  $2,800  more 
than  when  the  Democrats  ran  the  de- 
partment. 

Under  Democratic  rule  $10,000  was  al- 
lowed to  the  Experiment  Station  for 
analyzing.  We  learn  that  at  the  last 
meeting  of  the  board  this  allowance 
was  increased  to  $20,000.  We  have  alsc 
heard  that  some  of  the  salaries  were 
increased. 

THE  TAXES  COLLECTED. 

The  Hand-Book  says  that  the  Demo- 
crats collected  between  June  14,  1896, 
and  June  14,  1897,  $52,602.73,  and  the 
new  administration  from  June  14,  1897, 
to  June  1,  1898,  collected  $57,973.75. 

Assuming  that  these  figures  are  cor- 
rect, the  amount  of  taxes  collected  de- 
pends entirely  on  the  amount  of  fertil- 
izers sold  in  the  State.  The  amount 
has  been  steadily  increasing  year  by 
year;  as  the  number  of  bags  of  stuff 
sold  increases,  the  number  of  tags  sold 
increases,  and  the  amount  of  taxes 
realized  also  increases.  There  have 
been  but  few  flagrant  attempts  to  vio- 
late this  law.  The  most  flagrant,  it  is 
said,  has  been  made  bv  Mr.  J.  R. 
Chamberlain,  now  one  of  the  Fusion 
officials,  against  whom  several  suits 
have  been  conducted  by  that  able  legal 
adviser  of  his  Excellency  Hon.  J.  C.  L. 
Harris,  whose  expressions  in  regard  to 
Mr.  Chamberlain  would  be  decidedly 
out  of  place  in  a  Sunday  School  Book, 

Now,  taking  the  facts  stated  and  the 
light  thrown  on  the  subject  by  them, 
will  not  the  honest  Populist  ask  how 
did  the  authors  of  this  Hand-Book  dare 
to  trifle  with  them  by  withholding  from 
them  the  items  of  disbursement  herein 
specified;  and  by  not  calling  attention 
to  the  fact  that  the  amount  collected  de- 
pended entirely  on  the  number  of  bags 
of  fertilizers  sold  in  the  State  in  any 
given  year? 

Isn't  the  whole  thing  a  trap  to  de- 
ceive  the   unwary? 

Don't  your   see? 

Why  did  Dr.  Thompson  and  Mr.  Ayer 
offer  to  fuse  with  the  Democratic 
party? 


Increase  of  Tax  Receipts. 

Ihis  Hand-Book  pretends  to  discuss 
the  question  as  to  how  the  receipts  from 
taxes  in  1897  came  to  be  $33,000  more 
than  in  1896.  On  page  60  it  says: 
"There  has  been  no  increase  of  taxes," 
while  on  page  64,  it  says:  "This  is  ac- 
counted for  by  the  increase  of  license 
taxes,    etc." 

The  inconsistency  of  statement  is  ex- 
plained by  the  fact  that  the  two  state- 
ments were  on  different  pages;  and  the 
authors  of  the  Hand-Book  forgot  what 
they  had  written. 


Capt  Cooke's  reply  to  Dr.  Thompson 
rather  settled  that  matter. 

A    PITIABLE    SIGHT. 

As  we  have  pointed  out  elsewhere  the 
Populist  Party  started  out  six  years 
ago  with  a  well  defined  political  creed. 
Its  leaders  were  bold  and  aggressive 
in  their  advocacv  of  this  creed.  As 
every  article  of  this  creed  was  hostile 
to  Republican  teaching  these  leaders 
were  loud  and  long  in  their  denuncia- 
tion of  the  Republican  party  and  all  its 
teachings  and  practices.  Now  in  the 
short  space  of  six  years  we  see  these 
same  leaders  cease  to  advocate  these 
principles,  cease  to  say  a  word  against 
Republican  principles  and  openly  ad- 
vise the  Populists  to  embrace  these 
hated  Republican  principles  by  elect- 
ing Republicans  to  office.  Why?  Be- 
cause these  leaders  want  Pie  and  they 
are  willing  to  trade  principle  and  peo- 
ple to  get  it. 

"Do   you   gee?" 

Why  did  Dr.  Thompson  and  Mr.  Ayer 
offer  to  fuse  with  the  Democratic  par- 
ty? 

RAPID    PROGRESS. 

Messrs.  Thompson  and  Ayer  on  page 
9  of  their  book  say,  "An  organized  liar 
will"  not  stop  lying  simply  because  it 
cannot  find  something  to  lie  about.  It 
will  invent  something."  Whatever  else 
they  may  have  failed  in,  they  have  cer- 
tainly succeeded  in  making  good  that 
declaration  and  they  have  done  it  by 
their  own  example.  Starting  with 
falsehoods  of  minor  importance  they 
descend  by  easy  steps,  in  their  down- 
ward course,  till  they  invent  a  lie  on 
page  87  that  would  put  to  shame  the 
very  boss  of  liars.  Thev  made  such 
rapid  progress,  in  practical  demonstra- 
tion of  this'organized  being  which  they 
created,  that  on  page  87  they  speak  of 
the  negro  editor  Manly  in  Wilmington 
as  a  Democrat. 

Why  did  Dr.  Thompson  and  Mr.  Ayer 
offer  to  fuse  with  the  Democratic  par- 
ty? 
LOW   PRICE   OF   FARM   PRODUCTS. 

The  Populist  Orators  made  -the  cam- 
paign of  1894  on  the  low  price  of  farm 


15 


products  and  especially  were  they  loud 
and  long  on  five  cent  cotton.  Now 
search  this  remarkable  Book  -just  is- 
sued bv  Thompson  and  Ayer,  two  of 
these  Populist  Orators,  and  see  if  you 
find  one  word  about  low  price  of  farm 
products  and  five  cent  cotton.  Not  a 
word.  Why?  It  cannot  be  said  it  is 
because  farm  products  are  not  low,  for 
cotton  is  the  lowest  it  ever  was  at  the 
opening  of  the  cotton  season.  .  Then 
why  is  it  they  are  silent  on  this  ques- 
tion, the  question  of  all  others  which 
interest  those  Populist  farmers  most? 
We  answer,  it  is  because  they  are  in 
partnership  with  the  party  now  in 
power.  They  have  contracted  with  the 
Republican  leaders,  on  a  basis  of  a 
division  of  offices,  to  deliver  the  Popu- 
list vote  to  the  Republican  Party.  It 
will  therefore  not  do  for  them  to  call 
the  attention  of  the  Populist  Farmer  to 
the  low  price  of  farm  products  under 
Republican  laws  and  administrations. 

"Do  you  see." 

Why  did  Dr.  Thompson  and  Mr.  Ayer 
offer  to  fuse  with  the  Democratic  par- 
ty? 


Answer  to  the  Lawyer  Dodge 

In  their  Hand-Book  Messrs.  Thomp- 
son and  Ayer  head  their  chapter  two 
in  these  words:  "Lawyers  lived  at  the 
Treasury  through  when  Democrats 
were  in."  They  then  give  a  list  of 
amounts  paid  and  to  whom  for  attor- 
neys' fees  each  year  rrom  January, 
1877,  to  the  end  of  the  year  1896— a 
period  of  20  years.  We  have  not  veri- 
fied their  figures,  but  will  accept  them 
as  true.  The  aggregate  for  the  20  years 
is  $45,000,  or  an  average  of  $2,250  per 
year. 

Now  let  it  be  remembered  that  when 
the  Democrats  came  into  power  Jan- 
uary, 1877,  that  there  were  a  number  of 
suits  pending  and  soon  instituted  to 
establish  the  validity  of  the  Special 
Tax  Bond  and  to  enforce  their  pay- 
ment. All  of  this  litigation  grew  out 
of  the  fraudulent  and  infamous  Repub- 
lican legislation  of  68-69.  There  was 
also  pending  an  indictment  against 
Littlefield  and  others  for  the  part  he 
took  in  that  infamous  legislation.  Coun- 
sel were  employed  to  defend  these  suits 
and  prosecute  these  indictments.  Mr. 
T.  P.  Devereux  was  sent  to  Florida, 
where  Littlefield  was,  as  a  special 
agent  of  this  State,  with  a  requisition 
from  the  Governor  to  bring  him  to  this 
State  for  trial.  He  was  arrested  upon 
this  requisition  and  discharged  by  the 
courts  of  Florida.  Most  of  the  attor- 
neys' fees  for  the  first  years  of  the 
Democratic  administration  was  to  pay 
for  the  litigation  growing  out  of  Re- 
publican legislation.   The   Swasey     suit 


to  sell  the  State's  interest  in  the  N.  C, 
R.  R.  for  their  bondholders  was  also 
pending,  and  this  had  to  be  defended  or 
give  up  the  State's  interest  in  that 
road.  There  was  also  a  suit  in  the 
Federal  Court  at  Greensboro  which  in- 
volvel  the  right  of  the  State  to  sell  the 
Western  North  Carolina  Railroad.  It 
was  impossible  for  the  Attorney-Gen- 
eral to  attend  to  these  suits  and  look 
after  his  other  official  duties.  Deduct- 
ing these  necessary  expenses,  the 
balance  of  the  items  will  be  very  small. 
This  will  fully  appear  by  looking  at  the 
amounts  paid  some  of  the  years  of 
Democratic  administration.  One  year 
it  was  as  low  as  $450. 

During  the  last  several  years  of  the 
Democratic  administrations  litigation 
was  commenced  and  pressed  with  great 
vigor  to  compell  all  corporations  in  this 
State  to  put  all  their  property  on  the 
tax  list  for  taxation.  Attorneys  were 
employed  to  press  this  litigation  in  the 
State  and  Federal  Courts.  The  efforts 
of  the  State  were  finally  successful  and 
millions  of  dollars  worth  of  property 
was  put  upon  the  tax  list  which  had 
never  been  there  before.  About  this 
same  time  another  suit  was  brought 
against  the  State  to  make  the  State 
liable  for  the  Special  Tax  Bond*?,  which 
was  finally  determined  in  the  United 
States  Supreme  Court  in  favor  of  the 
people.  Most  of  the  fees  paid  attorneys 
in  the  latter  years  of  the  Democratic 
administration  were  for  these  purposes. 
But  as  we  have  said  the  figures  pub- 
lished in  this  Populist  Hand-Book 
show  that  the  annual  average,  includ- 
ing all  these  important  matters  above 
refei  red  to,  was  only  $2,250. 

GOV.  RUSSELL'S  ATTORNEYS. 

Now.  how  is  it  with  the  Russell  ad- 
ministration? We  take  the  figures 
from  the  Auditor's  report  for  1897  and 
we  find  they  add  up  $3,163.92.  So,  if 
Auditor  Ayer  is  correct  there  was  paids 
cut  to  attorneys  the  first  year  of  Gov- 
ernor Russell's  administration  $3,163.9^ 
— a  sum  much  larger  than  the  annual 
average  paid  under  Democratic  admin- 
lS'.ralitci.  But  $7,500  of  the  $45,000  was 
refunded  to  the  State  Treasury  ov  the 
railroads  ■  in  a  settlement,  so  that  the 
actual  amount  paid  by  the  State  in  the 
Democratic  period  of  25  years  wa's  only 
$38,000.  Deducting  this,  and  the  aver- 
age would  be  only  $1,900 — a  sum  much 
les.3  than  that  paid  by  the  Russell  ad- 
ministration for  the  year  1897.  We  do 
not  know  what  has  been  paid  in  189S 
and  wi)l  nut  till  the  Auditor's  report 
for  "this  yenr  is  published. 

This  $3,li!3.92  does  not  include  any- 
thing paid  at  the  Agricultural  Depart- 
ment. It  is  said  large  fees  have  been 
paid.  In  July  we  asked  for  an  itemized 
statement    of  the  expenditures   of   that 


16 


r/epavtment.  But  we  have  received  no 
reply  and  we  are  therefore  kept  in  the 
diivlt  as  tc  that.  Nor  does  it  include 
largo  sums  pL.ia  by  the  North  Carolina 
■ituilroari  Company  to  attorneys.  It 
must  be  remembered  that  three-fourths 
of  every  dollar  paid  by  that  company  to 
attorney  belong  to  the  State.  We  get 
from  the  Treasurer's  report  of  that 
•company  that  the  amounts  paid  to 
lawyers  for  several  years  were  as  fol- 
lows: 

For  the  year  beginning  1st  July, 

1894,  and  ending  July  1,  1895..$    134.45 

For  year  July,  '95,  ending 
July,    '96 1,075.33 

For  year  July  '96  to  July  '97 1,320.00 

For  year  July  '97  to  July  '98 7,320.74 

Now  three-fourths  of  the  amounts 
paid  under  the  Russell  administration 
of  the  N.  C.  Road  belonged  to  the  State. 
So  we  think  that  in  view  of  the  large 
amount  paid  out  of  the  State  Treasury 
to  attorneys  under  the  Russell  admin- 
istration and  by  the  Treasurer  of  the 
N.  C.  R.  R.  under  the  Russell  admin- 
istration, and  the  unknown  amount 
paid  out  by  the  Agricultural  Depart- 
ment under  the  Russell  administration, 
the  members  of  the  Russell  adminis- 
tration are  estopped  from  suggesting 
that  the  amounts  paid  by  the  Demo- 
cratic administration  during  its  years 
of  heavy  and  important  litigation  were 
excessive. 

But  the  meanness  of  this  Hand-Book 
is  illustrated  by  its  saying  the  Demo- 
crats in  20  years  paid  $45,000  to  lawyers 
without  once  saying  what  important 
suits  were  tried  in  these  years.  Sup- 
pose, for  instance,  the  suits  on  the 
Special  Tax  Bonds  had  gone  against 
us,  what  trouble  we  would  have  had. 
The  fees  under  Democratic  rule  were 
moderate  and  were  well  earned. 

Why  did  Dr.  Thompson  and  Mr. 
Ayer  offer  to  fuse  with  the  Demo- 
cratic party? 

THIS  BOOK  IS  AN  INSULT  TO  THE 
HONEST  POPULISTS. 

While  there  are  many  surprising 
things  in  this  Hand-Book  issued  in  the 
name  of  the  Populists  of  the  State,  but 
really  intended  to  serve  the  purposes 
of  the  Radicals  with  their  120,000  ne- 
groes at  their  back,  there  are  some 
Uiings  rather  more  surprising  than 
other  things.  All  of  its  statements  are 
not  of  the  same  grade.  And,  although 
this  book  pretends  to  be  addressed  to 
the  Populists,  some  of  its  reasoning  is 
really  an  insult  to  the  intelligence  of 
the  men  who  compose  the  Populist 
party.  Now,  what  asses  must  Dr. 
Thompson  and  Mr.  Ayer  believe  the 
Populists  to  be  when  they  undertake  to 
stuff  them  with  the  nonsense  that  the 
Democratic    party   appoints   negroes   to 


office!  We  say  that  kind  of  talk  is 
more  surprising  than  many  other  false 
things  contained  in  this  Hand-Book, 
because  it  shows  plainly  that  Dr. 
Thompson  and  Hal.  Ayer  think  very 
meanly  of  the  intelligence  of  the  Pop- 
ulist people  of  the  State.  Evidently 
they  think  that  the  Populists  will  ac- 
cept such  a  statement  merely  because 
it  is  made  in  "The  Hand-Book." 

Now  we  don't  have  the  same  con- 
temptible opinion  of  the  Populists  peo- 
ple as  the  authors  of  this  Hand-Book 
manifest.  However  we  may  have  dif- 
fered with  them  in  opinion  as  to  men 
and  measures,  we  know  that  they  are 
men  of  fair  intelligence  and  of  honest 
purposes.  And  if  they  have  been  in- 
duced to  vote  with  the  negro  crowd  in 
the  past, while  we  may  deplore  the  con- 
sequences to  the  people  of  the  Eastern 
part  of  the  State,  we  know  they  have 
the  manhood  to  try  and  remedy  the  ills, 
which  afflict  the   State. 

WHAT  THEY  HOPE  FOR. 

But,  what  does  this  Hand-Book  take 
the  Populists  people  for  when  it  tries 
to  make  out  that  the  Democrats  are 
the  people  who  put  negroes  in  office? 
The  object  is  plain  enough.  It  is  to 
try  and  make  the  Populists  believe  that 
there  is  no  difference  between  the  black 
Republican  party  and  the  Democratic 
party  on  the  subject  of  putting  negroes 
in  office.  Now,  why  does  this  Hand- 
Book  teach  that  false  doctrine?  It 
being  understood  that  some  of  the 
Populists  are  disgusted  with  the  steal- 
ings of  John  R.  Smith,  with  the  mal- 
administration of  affairs,  and  with  the 
spectacle  of  negroes  carrying  things 
with  a  high  hand  in  the  Eastern  sec- 
tion, and  in  consequence  are  joining 
the  white  man's  party,  Dr.  Thompson 
and  Mr.  Ayer  think  to  stop  that  move- 
ment. They  say  to  the  Populists  we 
are  co-operating  with  the  Republicans, 
and  while  it  is  true  they  put  negroes 
in  office,  yet  you  need  not  on  that  ac- 
count go  over  and  nelp  the  Democrats, 
for  they  too  put  negroes  in  office.  They 
are  just  as  milch  a  negro  party  as  tne 
Republicans.  Now  that  is  the  sun- 
stance  of  what  these  men  say  in  tneir 
Hand-Book.  That  is  what  they  want 
the  Populists  to  believe.  We  say  that 
is  an  insult  to  the  intelligence  of  tRe 
Populists  people.  The  falsehood  is  too 
plain  to  deceive  any  one.  But  tney 
seek  to  prove  it!  How?  By  publishing 
that  the  Democrats  put  negroes  on  the 
School  Committees — yes,  on  the  School 
Committees  in  negro  School  Districts! 
They  well  know  that  no  Democratic 
Board  ever  put  a  negro  on  a  school 
committee  for  any  white  school,  al- 
though they  did  sometimes  put  a  ne- 
gro on  a  scool  committee  for  negro 
schools.       The     Democrats       have       no 


17 


hatred  of  negroes  and  treat  them  fair- 
ly. They  have  given  the  negro  race 
adequate  and  fit  schools:  and  they  have 
provided  for  negro  teachers  of  these 
schools:  and  they  have  sometimes  put 
a  negro  on  the  committee  to  supervise 
these    schools. 

And  so,  also,  they  have  thought  it 
proper  that  in  the  appointment  of 
Directors  of  the  Colored  Insane  Asy- 
lum, the  negroes  should  have  some 
representation,  and  so  occasionally  we 
believe  some  negro  has  been  appointed 
a  Director  of  the  negro  Asylum  near 
Goldsboro  to  look  after  his  own  race. 

But  no  negro  has  ever  been  appointed 
by  a  Democratic  administration  a  Di- 
rector in  any  other  State  institution. 

THE    GRAND   WHOOPING    CRY    OF 
"NIGGER." 

Tet,  on  page  86  of  the  Hand  Book,  Dr. 
Thompson  and  Mr.  Ayer  publish  that 
when  Gov.  Russell  appoints  a  negro  on 
the  Board  of  Directors  who  manage 
the  WHITE  Institution  for  the  D.  D. 
and  Blind,  the  Democrats  make  a 
grand  whooping  "cry  of  Nigger."  The 
above  is  their  language.  It  seems  to 
indicate  that  they  disapproved  of  "the 
grand  whooping  cry  of  "Nigger"  which 
the  Democrats  made  when  Jim  Toung 
was  appionted.  Do  the  Populists  sym- 
pathize with  them  in  that  disapproval? 
Or  is  not  the  whole  thing  an  insult  te 
the  intelligence  of  the  Populist  people 
of  the  State. 

Why  did  Dr.  Thompson  and  Mr.  Ayer 
offer  to  fuse  with  the  Democrats? 

THE  BAD  SCHOOL  LAW. 

There  are  some  half  truths  that  re- 
flect upon  the  men  who  tell  them  quite 
as  much  as  whole  falsehoods.  Of  this 
kind  are  those  statements  in  the 
Hand-Book,(that  falsely  purports  to  be 
a  Populist  Hand-Book  but  which  is 
really  a  Republican-White-Washing 
Document)  which  purports  to  give  the. 
Democratic  record  in  regard  to  Demo- 
crats appointing  negroes  on  school 
committees.  Until  the  last  unfortunate 
school  law  was  put  on  the  statute 
book  there  were  separate  districts  for 
negro  schools  and  for  white  schools. 
The  policy  of  the  Democratic  party  has 
always  been  to  appiont  white  commit- 
teemen and  white  teachers  for  the 
white  children,  and  negro  committee- 
men and  negro  teachers  for  the  negro 
children.  The  honest  Populists  in  the 
.country  know  that.  Tet  this  Hand- 
Book  charges  the  Democrats  with  ap- 
pointing negro  committeemen  for 
schools,  without  once  saving  that  all 
such  appointments  were  made  for  ne- 
gro schools,  but  trying  to  create  the 
impression  that  those  negroes  were 
appointed  over  white  schools.  Now  is 
aot  that  a  very  mean  half-way  trutk? 


Is  it  not  just  as  bad  as  a  direct,  out- 
and-out  falsehood?  Is  it  not,  indeed, 
a  meaner  falsehood  than  a  plain  open 
downright   one? 

Well,  as  we  have  said,  the  last  Leg- 
islature put  a  very  improper  school  law 
on  the  statute  book.  It  put  all  the 
schools  in  anv  one  township  under  a 
single  committee.  After  that  there 
were  no  separate  negro  committees  for 
negro  schools.  Now  what  else  did  this 
unfortunate  law  say;  why  it  provided 
for  five  committeemen,  but  directed 
that  no  more  than  three  of  them  should 
belong  to  the  same  political  party.  The 
policy  of  that  law  was  to  reauire  a 
mixing  of  the  races  to  govern  the 
schools;  its  policy  was  to  amalgamate 
the  old  committees,  the  white  commit- 
tees and  the  black  committees  into  a 
single  township  committee;  and  under 
that  law  negro  committeemen  were 
put  on  the  only  school  committee  that 
there  was  in  any  township.  This  doubt- 
less is  the  reason  why  so  many  negroes 
have  been  appointed  during  the  past 
year  by  the  county  authorities  in  the 
negro  counties  on  school  committees, 
but  it  is  to  be  remembered  that  county 
authorities  in  those  counties  are  not 
now  Democratic.  This  law  providing 
for  an  amalgamated  school  committee 
was  an  adroit  Republican  measure, 
doubtless  intended  to  further  and  ad- 
vance the  Republican  policy  of  boost- 
ing up  the  negroes  and  extending  their 
sphere  of  local  action.  Here  a  little 
and  there  a  little,  the  negro  under  Re- 
publican auspices  is  to  be  shoved  for- 
ward, and  this  law  in  this  respect  was 
to  accomplish  something  in  that  direc- 
tion. 

It  is  to  be  noted  that  this  Republican 
White-Washing  Hand-Book  has  not  a 
word  to  say  about  that  law.  It  does 
not  demand  its  repeal.  It  does  not  say 
a  word  about  it.  The  Democrats  have 
announced  that  if  ever  they  get  a 
chance  they  will  undo  that  piece  of 
legislation  and  will  put  things  back  as 
they  were — negro  icommittemen  and  ne- 
gro teachers  for  negro  schools;  white 
committeemen  and  white  teachers  for 
white  girls  and  boys. 

Now  w>  ask  the  Honest  White  men 
of  the  State,  what  their  preference  is; 
and  will  they  not  give  the  Democrats  a 
chance  to  undo  this  legislation? 

Why  did  Dr.  Thompson  and  Mr.  Ayer 
offer  to  fuse  with  the  Democrats? 


About  Disfranchising  Voters. 

While  this  Hand-Book  says  that  the 
Democrats,  during  their  twenty  years 
of  power  in  North  Carolina,  never  of- 
fered to  disfranchise  the  negroes,  the 
Republicans  not  only  charge  the  Demo- 
crats with  having  that  purpose,  but  go 


18 


one  step  further  and  charge  the  Demo- 
crats with  having  the  purpose  of  dis- 
franchising the  poorer  class  of  white 
people   also. 

This  charge  is  like  tne  Republican 
charge  made  regularly  in  every  cam- 
paign that  we  would,  if  successful  in 
that  campaign,  certainly  disfranchise 
the  negro.  As  the  one  has  been  proved 
false  with  the  utmost  regularity,  so  the 
other  is  equally  false.  The  reliance  of 
the  Democratic  party  for  success  is  on 
the  votes  of  the  poorer  classes  of  white 
men. 

It  is  for  their  welfare  that  the  Demi- 
ocratic  party  has  labored  during  all 
these  years.  It  has  tax^d  the  rich  to 
establish  and  maintain  public  schools 
for  the  poor;  it  has  taxed  the  rich  to 
establish  and  maintain  charitable  in- 
stitutions, where  the  poor  afflicted 
could  be  accommodated.  The  rich  did 
not  need  those  public  institutions,  for 
they  can  send  their  afflicted  to  private 
institutions  in  other  States.  In  every 
step  of  its  career,  the  Democratic 
party  has  been  the  friend  of  the  poor 
man  and  it  has  waged  its  fiercest  bat- 
tles in  mis  interests.  The  Democratic 
fi*st  proposed  to  abolish  all  property 
qualifications  for  voting  and  for  office- 
holding.  It  was  defeated  at  the  polls 
on  that  measure.  But  it  did  not  stop 
for  that.  It  picked  its  flint  and  tried 
again,   and   was   successful. 

It  is  the  poor  man's  party.  Nine- 
tenths  of  its  members  are  poor  men. 
How  utterly  absurd  then  is  that  false 
charge  that  the  Republicans  are 
trumping  up  to  deceive  the  unwary.  In 
order  to  give  some  color  to  it,  they 
quote  something  from  a  Yankee  news- 
paper, whose  owners  and  editors  are, 
we  have  always  understood  Repub- 
licans, that  General  W.  R.  Cox,  who 
lives  in  "Washington,  told  a  reporter 
if  the  Democrats  succeeded,  they  would 
disfranchise  the  ignorant  negro.  But 
General  Cox  publishes  over  his  name  a 
declaration  that  he  never  said  that, 
and  never  said  anything  like  it.  For  he 
well  knew  that  even  if  the  Democrats 
should  succeed  and  should  have  control 
of  the  Legislature,  they  still  would  be 
powerless  to  disfranchise  anybody.  The 
Constitution  forbids  it. 

The  Constitution  gives  the  right  of 
suffrage  to  all  male  persons  over  21 
years,  not  disqualified  for  crime;  and 
the  Legislature  cannot  add  or  take 
away  a  letter  from  that.  That  can 
only  be  done  by  the  people  themselves 
and  the  Democrats  will  never  submit 
to  the  people  any  proposition  to  take 
from  a  man  his  right  to  vote.  No 
Democrat  has  ever  proposed  such  a 
thing.  The  charge  is  only  intended  to 
mislead,  to  deceive  and  to  make  pol-i.- 
tical  capital.  It  is  entirely  false.  There 
is  not  a  Democratic  convention  that 
would   not   spit   upon     the     man     who 


might  make  such  a  proposition.  There 
is  not  a  Democratic  candidate  for  of- 
fice who  would  not  pledge  himself  most 
solemnly  against  it.  There  is  not  a  man 
who  has  any  respect  for  his  word  who 
would  make  such  a  charge.  It  is,  we 
learn,  made  by  some  Radicals;  but  our 
people  know  the  character  of  these 
men.  They  have  no  self-respect,  and 
nobody  else  respects  them.  They  are 
not  entitled  to  the  respect  of  people 
because  they  do  not  respect  them- 
selves. It  is  wonderful  how  low-down 
some-  people  can  get  to  be  in  political 
matters;  with  what  unblushing  effront- 
ery they  can  invent  falsehoods,  until 
they  become  like  the  "organized"  being 
referred  to  in  the  Populist  Hand-Book. 
In  political  campaigns,  the  people 
should  be  asked  to  discuss  real  men 
and  real  measures,  and  the  real  prin- 
ciples of  parties:  falsehoods  and  mis- 
representations should  not  be  tolerated. 
This  eharge  against  the  Democratic 
party  that  it  proposes  to  disfranchise 
the  poor  white  men  of  the  State  or  the 
illiterate  white  men,  is  a  falsehood  out 
of  the  whole  cloth,  and  we  denounce 
it  as  a  falsehood  invented  to  deceive 
voters. 


The  Populist  Party. 

This  party  was  organized  in  this 
State  in  1892.  The  people  who  joined 
it  felt  they  had  a  grievance  which  nei- 
ther of  the  old  parties  would  heed  and 
a  remedy  which  neither  of  them  would 
try.  In  their  conventions  they  boldly 
proclaimed  to  the  world  their  princi- 
ples and  then  went  forth  with  enthusi- 
asm to  advocate  or  defend  them.  For- 
ty-seven thousand  men  enlisted  under 
its  banner  and  cast  their  votes  for  its 
candidates  the  first  year  of  its  exist- 
ence. Its  principles  were  ably  pre- 
sented and  discussed  by  its  candidates 
upon  the  hustings  and  around  the  fire- 
side. 

It  has  only  been  six  years  since  these 
principles,  so  much  discussed  then, 
were  pressed  upon  the  attention  of  the 
people.  Now  how  is  it?  The  Execu- 
tive Committee  of  this  party  has  just 
issued  a  political  Hand-Book  in  the 
name  of  the  Peonies  Partv  and  no 
where  in  that  Book  is  there  a  word 
about  the  principles  of  that  party.  They 
have  all  been  cast  aside  and  if  the  title 
page  of  that  remarkable  production 
was  torn  off,  no  one  would  ever  sup- 
pose that  it  had  emanated  from  or  been 
issued  by  the  Populist  Party.  In  fact 
it  is  not  a  Ponulist  publication.  Dr. 
Thompson  and  Mr.  Ayer  take  advan- 
tage of  their  position  as  Chairman  and 
Secretary  of  the  Executive  Committee 
of  that  party  to  issue  this  publication 
in   the  name   of  that     party.     It  is   an 


19 


Insult  to  all  honest  Populists  who  are 
in  that  party  from  principle  for  there  is 
not  a  word  in  advocacy  of 

POPULIST  PRINCIPLES. 

Or  the  Free  and  Unlimited  Coinage 
of  Silver. 

Or  the  abolition  of  National  Banks. 

Or  the  issue  of  Treasury  notes  in 
place  of  National  Bank  notes  or  inter- 
est-bearing bonds. 

There  is  not  a  word  of  protest  in  this 
most  remarkable  Book  against 

MONOPOLY    AND    TRUSTS. 

Or  High  Tariff  Taxes  under  which 
Trusts  flourish. 

Or  National  Banks  and  their  increas- 
ing power. 

Or  the  Single  Gold  Standard. 

Or  any  other  Republican  doctrine  or 
practice.  The""  do  not  even  so  much 
as  publish  the  Populist  platform.  Why 
all  these  omissions?  It  must  be  mani- 
fest that  it  is  because  they  have  them- 
selves abandoned  all  Populist  Princi- 
ples for  official  Pie  and  that  they  are 
preparing  to  deliver  their  party  over 
to  their  all*-,  the  Republican  party, 
whose  principles  are  the  very  antipodes 
of  every  principle  of  the  Populist  Party. 
Will  thev  be  able  to  deliver  the  rank 
and  file  of  their  partv?  We  believe 
not. 

There  is  another  remarkable  thing 
about  this  performance.  The  Repub- 
licans issue  no  Hand-Book.  By  an  ar- 
rangement with  Holton  and  Hyams  the 
Chairman  and  Secretary  of  the  Repub- 
lican Executive  Committee,  Thompson 
and  Ayer,  the  Chairman  and  Secretary 
of  the  Populist  Committee,  send  out 
a  Book  from  their  headquarters  which 
is  essentiallv  a  Republican  document 
but  which  is  labeled  on  the  outside, 
"Peoples  Party  Hand-Book."  This 
book  which  contains  nothing  of  Popu- 
lism except  the  name  on  the  back  of  it 
is  to  be  sent  to  the  Populists  of  the 
State  in  the  hope  of  fooling  them  and 
keeping  them  in  line  to  be  delivered 
over  on  the  day  of  election  to  the  Re- 
publican Party.  The  Republican  chair- 
man, he  lay  low,  the  Populist  chairman, 
he  make  a  Republican  Hand-Book  and 
call  it  Populist. 

"Do  you  see." 

CAN  ANT  HONEST  POPULIST  BE- 
LIEVE A  WORD  THOMPSON  AND 
AYER  SAY. 

Thompson  and  Aver  in  their  Hand- 
Book  seek  to  establish  two  propositions 
and  to  persuade  the  Populists  they  are 
true.     What  are  they? 

1st.  That  the  negro  who  so  outra- 
geously slandered  the  white  women  in 
the  country  homes   is  a  Democrat. 

2.  That  the  Democratic  party  favors 
negroes  holding  office  and  that  it  is  not 
the  white  man's  party. 


They  have  in  their  Hand-Book  assert- 
ed both  to  be  true.  Is  there  an  hones 
Populist  in  the  State  who  will  believe 
either.  We  think  not.  If  these  two 
statements  are  false,  the  book  is  a  vile 
slander  unon  150,000  white  men  and 
should  consign  its  authors  to  infamy 
and  shame. 

"Do  you  see." 

Why  did  Dr.  Thompson  and  Mr.  Ayer 
offer  to  fuse  with  the  Democrats? 

WHY   ARE   THE    REPUBLICANS   SI- 
LENT. 

When  this  important  campaign  be^ 
gan  the  Democrats  published  a  Demo- 
cratic Hand-Book  and  Democratic 
speakers  took  the  stump.  Dr.  Thomp- 
son, a  member  of  the  present  admin- 
istration entered  the  arena  and  he  and 
Mr.  Hal  Ayer,  another  one  of  the  pres- 
ent administration,  both  elected  by  the 
votes  of  the  Wilmington  negro,  Manly, 
and  about  120,000  other  negro  voters, 
together  got  up  an  alleged  Populist 
Hand-Book;  but  the  Republicans,  like 
Brer  Rabbit,  have  laid  low  and  said 
nothing.  The  Republicans  have  issued 
no  Hand-Book.  They  have  sent  no 
speakers  into  the  field,  except  perhaps 
the  nominees  for  Congress  in  some  dis- 
tricts. They  make  no  defence  of  the 
administration.  Never  has  there  been 
any  administration  since  1868  that  was 
such  a  stench  in  the  nostrils  of  the 
people;  never  has  there  been  such 
a  spectacle  as  the  John  R.  Smith 
episode  from  beginning  to  end;  as  the 
administration  declining  to  open  Iftie 
books  of  the  Penitentiary  and  of  the 
Agricultural  Department  to  inspection; 
as  public  officers  closing  their  books 
and  keeping  tkeir  accounts  secret;  as 
the  extravagance  and  prodigal  use  of 
public  money  to  reward  political  fa- 
vorites; jobs  of  one  kind  and  jobs  of 
another  kind.  The  Republicans  merely 
say  nothing.  They  know  that  the  ad- 
ministration cannot  be  defended  before 
the  people,  and  so  they  are  quiet,  ex- 
pecting their  -120,000  negroes  to  remain 
faithful  and  solid  no  matter  what 
comes. 

But  .the  laboring  oar  is  taken  up  by 
Dr.  Thompson,  and  Hal.  Ayer,  and 
Ramsay,  and  Denmark,  all  pie-eaters. 
These  have  undertaken  the  task  of 
rallying  the  Populists  to  defend  the  ad- 
ministration, to  win  the  honest  Popu- 
list people  of  the  State  over  to  sustain 
the  corruptions  and  the  jobbery  that 
have  turned  the  stomach  of  so  many 
white  men  in  the   State.     Do  you  see? 

And  so  while  Dr.  Thompson  is  mak- 
ing speeches,  these  other  members  of 
the  administration,  for  Ayer  and  Ram- 
say and  Denmark  all  have  good  offices, 
are  hard  at  work  writing  and  dis- 
tributing literature,  provided  we  sup- 
pose out  of  the  Republican  campaign 
fund.     Thus  the  only  men     sustaining, 


before  the  public  this  wicked  adminis- 
tration, are  the  office-holding  Populists 
now  in  close  alliance  with  the  Repub- 
lican. • 

The  reason  is  plain  to  see.  They  are 
fishing  for  Populist  votes.  They  are 
the  stool  pigeons  to  draw  as  many  of 
the  innocent  birds  as  they  can  into  the 
net  of  the  wary  hunter.  But  we  be- 
lieve the  intelligent  white  men  of  the 
State  will  refuse  to  be  led  by  such 
leaders,  whose  objects  and  purposes 
and  whose  hopes  of  reward  are  so 
plainly  visible.      s  . 

What  was  the  proposition  Dr. 
Thompson  and  Mr.  Ayer  made  to  the 
Democrats? 

Was  it  not,  fuse  with  us  and  keep  ua 
in  office?  And  the  Democrats  said, 
No,  we  will  not  keep  you  in  office! 


FRANCIS  D.  WINSTON. 

And  the  Letter  to  the  Negro,  George  H.  White 
--What  Mr.  Winston  Said  on  the  Subject  in 
His  Recent  Speech  at  Ahoskee. 

"There  may  be  white  men  here  to-day- 
honest  men,  who  believe  they  can  remain 
with  the  Populist  party  and  not  wind 
up  with  the  Republican  party.  My 
friends,  if  you  are  here,  do  not  delude 
yourselves  with  that  idea.  Other  men 
as  honest,  as  sincere,  as  strong  as  you 
have  tried  that  course  and  failed.  I 
speak  from  a  sad  and  bitter  experience. 
In  1884  I  voted  with  the  Liberals  in 
this  State.  I  did  not  count  on  the  cer- 
tainty of  drifting  into  the  Republican 
party.  Such  an  idea  was  repulsive  to 
me.  I  would  have  resented  such  an 
imputation,  and  denounced  it.  But  in 
June,  1890,  I  found  myself  seeking 
the  nomination  for  Judge  at  the  hands  of 
that  party  in  the  Second  district— a  party 
composed  of  ninety  per  cent  of  negroes 
It  was  to  them  I  was  to  look  for  the 
nomination.  Every  delegate  in  the  con- 
vention was  a  black  man.  I  was.  seeking 
their  support.  I  understand  that  a  letter 
written  by  me  then  is  in  use  by  some 
parties  in  this  campaign.  I  have  seen  it. 
I  do  not  deny  writing  such  a  letter.  It 
may,  and  must  be  true,  that  I  wrote  such 
a  letter,  because  I  was  seeking  a  nomina- 
tion at  the  hands  of  the  Republican  pav- 
ty.  No  man,  then  or  now,  can  gain  any 
negro  support  without  yielding  to  them. 
George  H.-  White,  a  negro  was  then, 
as  he  is  now,  the  leader  of  the  Republi- 
can party  in  the  district.     He  was  soli- 


citor. I  wrote  to  him,  and,  I  suppose, 
used  langauge  of  flattery.  In  July,  1890, 
I  was  nominated  for  Judge.  In  August, 
1890,  feeling  the  humiliation  of  my  posi- 
tion, as  every  white  man  in  Eastern 
j.\ortu  Carolina  must  do  who  belongs  to 
the  party,  and  recognizing  the  loss  in 
self-respect  to  myself,  as  the  price  of  my 
Republicanism,  and  seeing  every  .avenue 
to  promotion  in  that  party  closed  to 
every  white  man  who  did  not  bend  to 
the  negro,  I  declined  the  nomination  and 
quit  the  party,  as  I  advise  every  self- 
respecting  white  man  belonging  to  it  to 
do,  as  a  duty  he  owes  to  himself  and 
his  race.  From  that  hour  I  have  labored 
to  mend  the  wrong  I  did  myself  and  my 
family  and  my  race  by  that  political  con- 
nection. It  was  brief,  but  it  was  bitter. 
I  beg  you,  my  fellow  citizens,  not  to  go 
to  the  Republican  party,  because  I  was 
once  in  it." 

Here  Mr.  Winston,  addressing  Prof. 
Philip  E.  Shaw,  Populist-Republican  can- 
didate for  Senator  in  the  First  district 
said: 

"My  friend,  if  you  will  hand  me  the 
copy  of  that  letter,  which  you  have,  I  will 
read  it  to  the  audience  and  then  admit  its 
genuineness  or  denounce  it  as  a  forgery." 

Prof.  Shaw  hesitatingly  asked  Mr. 
Winston  "what  letter  he  was  referring 
to."       The  answer  came  like  a  flash: 

"The  letter  you  now  hold  in  your  hand, 
the  letter  you  boasted  on  the  streets  here 
last  Saturday  you  would  read  and  crush 
me  with:  the  letter  your  negro  masters 
in  the  Republican  party  have  sent  you 
here  to-day  to  confront  me  with." 

it  was  electrical.  The  crowd  went 
wild.  Old  men  and  young  cheered  r.o 
the  echo. 

"What,"  said  Mr.  Winston,  "is  this 
Populist  candidate  for  the  State  Senate- 
doing  with  a  letter  written  by  me  years 
ago  which  is  the  property  of  a  negro 
politician?  Where  did  he  get  it? 
Through  what  channel  does  it  come  to 
the  public?  Is  the  negro  running  the 
Populist  party  as  well  as  the  Republican 
party?  By  what  means  does  such  a  let-, 
ter,  written  under  such  circumstances, 
1  ecome  the  stock  in  trade  of  a  man  who 
says  he  is  for  white  supremacy?  What 
other  instructions  did  the  owner  of  the 
letter  give  to  the  men  who  make  it 
public?  I  charge  you,  sir.  with  being  the 
emissary  of  the  negro  in  this  matter, 
and  demand  that  you  read  the  letter  to 
the  people." 

Prof.  Shaw  spoke  for  an  hour  and  a 
quarter  and  did  not  read  the  letter  or 
make   any   reference  to  the  incident. 


21 


NEGROES  NOT  ONLY  DEMAND  OF-        f^gg       QvSter       COSt       CaSeS. 
FICE       BUT       REPEAL     OF     LAW 


AGAINST  MARRIAGES  BETWEEN 
WHITE  PEOPLE  AND  NEGROES. 

As  if  the  problems,  as  now  existing 
and  to  some  extent  regulated  by  law, 
in  tconnection  with  the  relationship  of 
the  white  and  negro  races  are  not  suf- 
ficient, we  are  to  bs  confronted  imme- 
diately by  a  crusade,  no  less  significant 
than  bold,  inaugurated  by  a  negro 
meeting  at  Rochester,  New  York,  re- 
cently, to  wipe  out  the  laws  in  States 
now  prohibiting  inter-marriage  be- 
tween the  whites  and  blacks.  The 
time  of  the  unveiling  of  the  monument 
to  the  late  Fred  Douglass  in  the  New 
York  city  was  the  occasion  for  the  for- 
mation of  a  new  negro  organization 
in  this  country,  one  of  the  avowed  ob- 
jects of  this  organization  is,   to  secure 

uniform  marriage  laws  in  all  the 
States,  and  revision  of  the  laws 
in.  the  twenty  four  States  where 
inter  -  marriage  between  white 
and  blacks  is  not  allowed. 

JOHN  C.  DANCY,  OF  THIS  STATE, 
NEGRO  COLLECTOR  OF  CUSTOMS 
AT  THE  PORT  OF  WILMINGTON, 
IS  VICE-PRESIDENT  OF  THIS  NEW 
ORGANIZATION. 

Such  social  privileges  have  not  here- 
tofore been  asked  for  or  expected,  if 
desired,  by  the  negroes  in  this  or  other 
Southern  States.  They  have  contented 
themselves  with  seeking  and  holding 
offices  when  the  Republican  party  was 
in  Dower  to  insure  this.  The  success 
of  the  combination  in  this  State  in 
1894  and  again  in  1896  has  evidently 
emboldened  the  race,  specially  those 
in  this  State  led  by  Dancy  and  White. 
They  are  made  to  feel  that,  the 
white  people  being  divided,  their 
control  in  North  Carolina  is  as- 
sured for  the  future,  and  Congressman 
White  can  boldlv  come  forward  in  a 
State  convention  of  his  party,  com- 
posed largely  of  whites,  and  proclaim: 
"I  am  not  the  onlv  negro  who  holds 
office.  There  are  others.  There  are 
plenty  more  being  made  to  order  to 
hold  office.  We  do  not  hold  as  many 
as  we  will."  And  the  negro  Dancy 
neither  hesitates  or  fears  to  advocate 
the  inter-marriage  of  the  races. 


The  Republican  Hand-Book  issued  by 
the  Populist  Executive  Committee  has 
something  to  say  about  the  Oyster  Cost 
Cases  from  Carteret  and  Pamlico  coun- 
ties. The  conduct  of  Treasurer  Worth 
and  Auditor  Ayer  with  reference  to 
uiese  cases,  fully  illustrates  the  devious 
methods  of  these  two  officials  and  their 
willingness  to  distort  facts  for  the  pur- 
pose of  making  a  little  cheap  political 
capital.  Let  us  review  briefly  the  facts 
with   reference   to   these  cases. 

It  was  the  policy   of   the   Legislature 
of    1887    to    promote    the    cultivation    of 
Oysters  in  our  Eastern  waters.  In  Carry- 
ing  out      that   policy,    that   Legislature 
passed   an   Act   opening   all   the   waters 
of  Eastern  North  Carolina,  except  Nat- 
ural  Oyster  Beds,   to   entry  and  grant, 
as   other   public   lands   were    opened   to 
entry  and  grant.     To  do   this  they  ap- 
pointed what  is  known  as  the  Shell  Fish 
Commission  and  directed  this  commis- 
sion      to       cause       to       be       surveyed, 
and      staked      off      all      natural      oys- 
ter    beds,      and      provided      that     any 
lands     covered     by     water     in     certain 
sounds   and  rivers   in  the   eastern   part 
of  the  State,  and  not  included  and  em- 
bracer! in  the  lands  so  svs  veyed  and  set 
apart  as  natural  oyster  beds,  should  be 
subject  to   entry.     Under   the   direction 
of   this     Commission,    the     survey   was 
made,  and  what  they  found  to  be  nat- 
ural  ovster   beds   were   staked   off   and 
report    thereof    duly    filed.     After    this 
some   600   or   more    persons    in    Pamlico 
and  200  in  Carteret  county,  and  a  few  in 
Hyde    countv,    laid    entries    upon    lands  ' 
other  than  those  included  in  this  report 
of    the    Commission    as    natural    oyster 
beds.      After    these    entries    were   made 
it   was   claimed   by   a   large   number   of 
the  people    of  these  counties  that  some 
of  these  grants  covered  natural  oyster 
beds,  though  not  a  part  of  the  lands  set 
apart  by  the   report   as   natural   oyster 
beds,  and  the  Legislature  of  1893  pass- 
ed an   Act,   directing     the     Solicitor  of 
these  counties,  upon  the  affidavit  of  five 
free-holders,  that  any  one  of  these  en- 
tries  covered  a  natural   oyster  bed,    to 
forthwith     institute   an     action   in   the 
name     of   the   State     to   set     aside     as 
void  such  entry.    No  fee  whatever  was 
provided  for  the  Solicitors  and  none  has 
ever    been    charged    bv    them,  -but    the 
terms  of  the  Act  were  imperative  and 
they  felt  bound  under. their  oath  of  of- 
fice to  institute  suits  whereever  the  re- 
quisite affidavit  was  made. 

Affidavits  were  filed  in  Pamlico  coun- 
ty as  required  by  the  statute  alleging 
that  about  600  entries  which  had  been 
made  by  citizens  of  that  county  cov- 
ered natural  oyster  beds.  Similar  affi- 
davits were  made  by  citizens  of  Car- 
teret and  Hyde  counties,  and  according- 


22 


ly  actions  were  instituted  to  carry  out 
the  command  of  the  Legislature  as 
embodied  in  this  Act. 

The  Grantees  in  these  entries  claimed 
that  the  Act  of  the  Legislature  of  1893 
was  not  constitutional,  as  interfering 
with  vested  rights,  and  that  the  report 
of  the  -Commission  appointed  under  the 
Act  of  the  Legislature  of  1887  conclu- 
sively determined  the  auestion  as  to 
what  constituted  natural  ovster  beds, 
and  under  this  contention  a  test  case 
was  made  up  for  the  Supreme  Court. 
In  that  case  the  Supreme  Court  decided 
with  the  defendants,  holding  that  the 
Act  of  the  Legislature  of  1893  was  un- 
constitutional and  that  in  law  there 
were  no  natural  oyster  beds  except 
those  set  apart  by  the  Shell  Fish  Com- 
mission in  their  survey  and  re- 
port before  mentioned.  Of  course 
this  decision  settled  the  ques- 
tion of  the  constitutionality  of  tne 
Act,  and  the  Solicitors  in  these  coun- 
ties, as  was  their  duty,  took  a  non-suit 
in  each  of  these  cases.  In  Pamlico 
county  the  costs,  amounting  to  between 
three  and  four  thousand  dollars,  was 
taxed  against  the  county  of  Pamlico 
and  judgment  accordingly  rendered 
against  that  county.  The  Commission- 
ers of  this  county,  having  been  allowed 
to  make  themselves  parties  to  these 
suits,  appealed  from  the  judgment  tax- 
ing the  county  with  the  cost,  claiming 
that  the  county  did  not  bring  the  suits 
and  had  no  interest  in  them;  that  they 
were  brought  in  the  name  of  the  State 
by  direction  of  te  Legislature,  and  if 
they  had  been  successful  the  State 
would  have  reaped  the  benefit. 

Mr.  F.  M.  Simmons  was  employed  by 
the  county  of  Pamlico  to  argue  this 
case  in  the  Supreme  Court.  This  was 
Mr.  Simmons'  first  connection  with 
these  cases.  He  did  argue  the  case  for 
the  county  before  the  Supreme  Court, 
and  that  court  rendered  judgment  hold- 
ing that  the  county  was  not  liable  for 
the  costs,  but  strongly  intimated  that 
'  the  State  was  liable.  When  this  opin- 
ion of  the  court  was  certified  back  to 
the  Superior  Court  of  Pamlico,  Mr.  Sim- 
nons,  together  with  other  attornies,  was 
employed  by  the  officers  to  whom 
these  costs  were  due,  and  upon  their 
motion  Judge  W.  S.  O'B.  Robinson,  a 
Republican  judge,  rendered  judgment 
against  the  State  for  the  costs.  In  Car- 
teret county,  Judge  Timberlake,  a  Pop- 
ulist judge,  rendered  judgment  against 
the  State  for  costs  due  officers  in  that 
county.  An  appeal  from  these  judg- 
ments was  taken,  and  a  test  case  made 
up  in  Pamlico,  and  the  Supreme  Court 
in  that  case  decided  that  the  State  was 
liable  for  the  costs,  saving  that  the 
State  was  as  much  bound  to  pay  its 
honest  debts  as  an  individual. 

Notwithstanding  these  several  decis- 
ions against  the  State  in  the   Superior 


and  Supreme  Courts,  Treasurer  Worth 
still  denied  the  State's  liability,  and 
employed  Maj.  Guthrie  to  assist  the  At- 
torney General  in  a  motion  to  rehear 
the  case,  and  accordingly  there  was  a 
rehearing.  The  Supreme  Court  at  this 
rehearing  again  decided  that  the  State 
was  liable  for  these  costs,  but  decided 
that  several  small  items  in  the  bill  of 
costs  were  illegal,  and  directed  the  bill 
of  costs  to  be  retaxed.  These  items 
which  the  court  said  were  illegal  were 
such  as  the  clerks  all  over  the  State 
up  to  that  time  had  been  cnarglng.  The 
bill  of  costs,  however,  was  retaxed  in 
accordance  with  the  decision  of  the 
court,  and  the  State  again  appealed. 
Again  the  Supreme  Court  affirmed  the 
Lability  of  the  State.  Treasurer  Worth 
still  refusing  to  pay,  a  mandamus  was 
issued  and  Judge  Robinson  decided  that 
he  must  pav.  From  this  decision  an 
appeal  was  taken,  and  the  Supreme 
Court  again  asserted  that  the  liability 
the  State  for  the  costs,  but  said  that 
the  Legislature  had  made  no  special 
appropriation  to  pay  this  item  of  ex- 
pense and  that  the  claimants  would 
have  to  wait  until  the  Legislature  con- 
vened and  made  an  appropriation  for 
that  purpose.  So  that  Treasurer  Worth 
has  not  saved  the  State  by  all  this  lit 
igation,  for  there  is  an  absolute  judg- 
ment against  the  State,  rendered  by  its 
court  of  highest  resort,  for  the  amount 
of  these  costs,  and  of  course  the  Legis- 
lature will  promptly,  acting  upon  the 
idea  of  the  Supreme  Court,  that  the 
State  is  as  much  liable  for  its  honest 
debts  as  an  individual,  make  the  neces- 
sary appropriation. 

WORTH  AND  RAMSEY'S  CHARGE 
OF  FRAUD. 
Now,  during  all  this  litigation,  when 
Treasurer  Worth  had  an  opportunity 
to  have  the  question  of  fraud,  if  any, 
in  these  cases  investigated  and  deter- 
mined bv  a  jury,  neither  he  nor  the 
Solicitors  representing  him  ever  inti- 
mated that  there  was  anv  fraud  in 
these  cases,  and  the  only  suggestion 
of  fraud  has  come  from  Treasurer 
Worth  and  the  Progressive  Farmer  in 
interviews  and  newspaper  articles.  Why 
did  not  they  raise  the  question  of  fraud 
before  the  court  and  let  the  jury  decide 
it?  Editor  Ramsey,  of  the  Progressive 
Farmer,  went  so  far  as  to  charge  some 
of  the  lawyers  who  appeared  in  these 
cases  with  being  particeps  criminis  to 
the  fraud  which  he  and  Treasurer 
Worth  charged  against  their  clients. 
For  making  this  charge,  Editor  Ramsey 
was  promptly  arrested  for  criminal 
libel  and  bound  over  to  the  Superior 
court  of  Wayne  county  in  the 
sum  of  $500,  and  when  the 
grand  jury  found  a  true  bill  against 
him,  he  appeared  before  Judge  Timber- 
lake,  a  Populist  Judge,  and  entered  a 
retraxit  and  apologised. 


23 


For  the  same  charge  Treasurer  Worth 
has  been  sued  by  the  Clerk  of  the  Su- 
perior court  of  Carteret  county  and  also 
in  Pamlico  by  the  Clerk  of  the  Super- 
ior court  of  that  county,  for  slander 
and  libel,  and  these  actions  are  now 
pending  againsct  him. 

LAWYER  FEES  PAID  "BY  STATfc. 

But  Auditor  Ayer  and  The  Progres- 
sive Farmer' have  recently  had  much  to 
say  about  the  amount  of  money  paid 
lawyers  by  the  State  government  while 
the  Democrats  were  in  power.  Let  us 
see  how  much  the  present  fusion  crowd 
have  paid  out  to  lawyers  in  these  cases, 
involving  altogether  less  than  $5,000, 
and  how  many  lawyers  they  have  em- 
ployed to  assist  in  Solicitors  and  Attor- 
ney General  in  representing  the  State 
in  these  cases.  Here  is  a  list  of  tne 
lawyers  that  they  have  employed  to  as- 
sist the  Attorney  General  and  Solicitors 
in  these  cases:  W.  A.  Guthrie,  W.  H. 
Day,  Jas.  C.  MacRae,  J.  C.  L.  Harris. 
W.  D.  Mclver,  Douglass  &  Simms.  To 
Maj.  Guthrie  they  paid  $100  retainer:  \o 
Day  &  MacRae,  $400;  to  J.  C.  L.  Harn-s, 
$400.  It  is  not  known  yet  what  they 
have  paid  Mr.  Mclver  or  Douglass  and 
Simms,  but  as  they  have  done  as  much 
work  as  any  of  the  others  who  were 
employed,  it  is  fair  to  assume  that 
they  have  been  paid  in  proportion. 
What  service  Mr.  Harris  has  rendered 
the  State  in  these  cases  for  the  $400 
he  has  received,  is  not  known.  When  the 
motion  for  mandamus  was  argued  be- 
fore Judge  Robinson  he  was  present  for 
a  short  while,  but  said  nothing  and  be- 
fore the  argument  was  closed  left  the 
court  and  went  home.  When  the  cat.e 
was  argued  in  the  Supreme  court  be 
was  in  Washington  city.  So  far  as  is 
known  he  has  never  opened  his  mouth 
in  these  cases,  and  yet  he  has  received 
$400,  it  would  appear,  not  for  appearing 
in  the  case  but  for  not  appearing. 

THE   GOVERNOR   AND   THAT   RICE 
FARM. 

In  October,  1897 — last  fall — Governor 
Russell  made  a  deed  and  the  privy  ex- 
amination was  taken  thereon,  of  a. 
tract  of  120  acres  of  land  in  Brunswick 
county,  to  Mr.  H.  U.  Butters,  the  con- 
sideration  being  one   thousand   dollars. 

Soon  thereafter  Governor  Russell  and 
his  Superintendent  of  the  Penitentiary, 
the  only  persons  authorized  by  a  law 
passed  by  the  fusion  legislature  of  1897 
to  act,  leased  this  same  tract  of  land 
from  Mr.  Butters  for  the  sum  of  FIVE 

HUNDRED  DOLLARS  PER  ANNUM. 

Was  this  not  a  splendid  trade  on  the 
part  of  Mr.  Butters?  To  pay  to  Gov- 
ernor Russell  $1,000  for  a  piece  of  land 
and   turn  right  round     and     lease   the 


same  back  to  the  Governor  for  the  use 
of  the  State,  for  $500  per  annum,  one- 
half  of  the  purchase  money? 

Several  strange  features  are  connect- 
ed with  this  transaction.  A  deed  for 
this  land  was  executed  in  October,  1897, 
when  the  privy  examination  takes 
place. 

The  State  leases  it — through  the 
same  Governor,  who  was  grantor  in  the 
sale — and  proceeds  to  work  it.  The 
deed  is  delivered  to  the  register  of 
Brunswick  county  ON  JULY  26TH, 
1898,  for  registration,  and  is  duly  reg- 
istered on  that  date,  nine  months  after 
the  privy  examination,  several  months 
after  the  Governor  leases  the  property, 
and  A  FEW  DAYS  AFTER  MR. 
SIMMONS  ADDRESSED  MR.  MEW- 
BORNE  ASKING  FOR  INFORMA- 
TION CONCERNING  THE  LANDS 
LEASED  BY  THE  STATE,  to  which 
the  Governor  replied  in  the  better 
signed    by   Mewborne 

WHY  THE  SO-CALLED  POPULIST 
HAND-BOOK  IS  SILENT  ON  THE 
SUBJECT  OF  FIVE-CENT  COTTON. 

The  people  have  been  looking  and  lis- 
tening— looking  carefully,  week  by 
week,  over  Populist  papers — Caucasian, 
Progressive  Farmer,  Home  Rule  and 
others — for  a  denunciation  of  the  McKin- 
leyrRussell  administrations  on  account 
of  FIVE  CENT  COTTON.  They  have 
listened  for  some  of  the  fusion  speakers 
to  denounce  the  present  gold-bug-plu- 
tocratic government  in  behalf  of  the 
poor  farmers  on  account  of  five-cent 
-cotton. 

They  have  looked  and  listened  in 
vain.  Cotton  is  not  only  selling  for  five 
cents,  the  best  grades,  but  the  common- 
er grades  are  selling  for  two  cents  less 
per  pound. 

Twenty  dollars  per  bale  is  the  price 
the  best  cotton  is  selling  for,  and  yet 
not  one  word  of  complaint  from  Thomp- 
son, or  Ramsey,  or  Ayer,  or  The  Pro- 
gressive  Farmer,    or   The   Caucasian. 

Why?    do   you   ask? 

Are  not  these  patriots  in  "cohoot" 
with  the  McKinley-Russell  administra- 
tion? Are  they  not  struggling  to  keep 
these  in  power,  regardless  of  the  poor 
farmer,  or  five  cent  cotton,  or  white 
supremacy,  or  honesty,  ->r  decency  in 
government  ? 

They  may  think  the  farmers  are  not 
thinking  of  these  things;  but  we  ven- 
ture they  will  think  of  them  when  they 
go. to  sell  their  cotton.  These  gentry 
told  the  farmers  that  the  Democrats 
caused  the  low  price  of  cotton  in  1896, 
and  promised  better  if  they  were  put 
in  power.  Cotton  sold  for  more  than 
six  cents  in  1896,  and  is  selling  for  five 
cents  and  less  in  1898.  The  farmer  can't 
be  fooled  all  the  time. 


24 


WHAT  IS  NOT   IN     THE     HAND- 
BOOK. 

As  remarkable  as  are  many  things 
contained  in  this  Hand-Book,  that  pro- 
duction is  more  remarkable  for  what 
it  does  not  contain  than  what  is  found 
therein.  One  would  naturally  suppose 
that  he  would  find  in  it  the  platform 
of  the  Populist  party;  the  declarations 
of  that  party  in  favor  of  reforms,  of 
economy,  of  cutting  down  salaries  to  a 
level  with  5-cent  cotton  and  other  gold 
prices;  the  declarations  in  favor  of  the 
free  and  unlimited  coinage  of  silver, 
and  other  such  demands  of  the  Popu- 
(     lists  people.-   But  all  that  is  left  out. 

Some  one- wrote  a  little  book  :some 
time  ago  giving  a  fancy  sketch  of  what 
people  in  the  spirit  world  were  saying 
to  each  other.  He 'described  how  the 
Showman  Barnum,  wno  had  the  great- 
est show  on  earth, was  quarrelling  with 
old  Noah  for  not  saving  in  the  ark 
some  of  those  immense  lizards'  and 
strangely  made  beasts  whose  bones  are 
found  covered  with  the  washings  of  fhe 
flood,  but  none  of  which  exist  at  this 
day. 

Old  Barnum  was  quarrelling  with 
Noah  for  not  saving  some  specimens 
which  would  have  made  such  a  great 
addition  to  his  show.  Noah  answered 
meekly  that  he  tried,  but  couldn't.  But 
Barnum  would  take  no  excuse  and  was 
berrating  Noah  soundly,  when  Shem 
spoke   up   and   said: 

Mr.  Barnum,  you  are  wrong  about 
that.  We  had  some  of  those  free-sil- 
veranians  on  board,  'but  they  were  so 
irritating  to  the  gold-buggarians,  that 
we  had   to  pitch  them  overboard. 

And  so  Dr.  Thompson  and  Mr.  Ayer, 
who  think  they  are  running  the  ark  of 
safety  of  the  Populist  party,  finding 
that  \the  free  silver  principles  of  the 
Populist  party  are  irritating  to  the 
gold-bug  Republicans  up  in  the  Capitol 
building,  have  thrown  them  overboard. 
They  are  nowhere  to  be  found  in  the 
Populist  Hand-Book.  They  are  lost — 
strayed  or  stolen!! 

Was  there  ever  such  a  betrayal  by 
men  who  assume  to  speak  for  an  or- 
ganization embracing  in  it  32,000  hon- 
est and  intelligent  North  Carolina 
white  men! 

Said  we  not  truly  that  this  Hand- 
Book  is  a  Republican  white-washing 
concern? 

DON'T  YOU   SEE? 

But  although  Dr.  Thompson  and  Hal. 
Ayer   and   their   co-adjuters   have     not 


preserved  any  of  the  free  silver  prin- 
ciples in  their  Hand-Book,  these  prin- 
ciples are  safely  preserved  by  the  Bryan 
Democrats,  and  under  Democratic  care 
they  are  growing  and  spreading  like 
the  green  bay  tree. 

The  news  comes  from  every  quarter 
that  the  Democrats  are  going  to  rout 
the  Republicans  in  the  elections  and 
that  the  next  House  of  Representatives 
will  be  Democratic  and  free  silver  will 
be 'on  top  again  in  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives at  Washington,  this  alleged 
Populist  Hand-Book  to  the  contrary 
notwithstanding. 

In  this  State,  the  platrorm  of  "White 
men  and  white  metal"  finds  a  response 
in  the  hearts  of  the  people  and  they 
will  rally  to  it  despite  all  the  endeavors 
of  those  who  have  cast  their  political 
fortunes  in  unison  with  gold-buggism 
and  monopoly. 

Why  did  Dr.  Thompson  and  Mr. 
Ayer  offer  to  fuse  with  the  Democrats? 

WHY  DID  DR.  THOMPSON  AND  MR. 
AYER  OFFER  TO  FUSE  WITH 
THE   DEMOCRATS? 

Dr.  Thompson  and  Mr.  Ayer  were  in 
the  committee  that  offered  to  fuse  with 
the  Democrats.  The  proposition  was 
made.  At  that  time  the  Democrats  were 
fit  people  for  them  to  fuse  with.  The 
record  of  the  Democratic  party  was 
good  enough  for  them  to  wish  to  co- 
operate with   us. 

But  they  added  a  condition.  It  was 
that  the  Democrats  should  keep  in  of- 
fice the  Populists  office-holders.  That 
meant  we  were  to  keep  in  office  Mr. 
Hal.  Ayer  and  Dr.  Thompson  and 
others. 

Well,  for  one  cause  or  another  that 
offer  was  declined.  Hence  Dr.  Thomp- 
son and  Mr.  Ayer  have  been  making 
night  hideous  with  their  cries  against 
the  Democrats.  Had  we  agreed  to 
keep  them  in  office,  why  in  that  case 
the  Democrats  would  have  been  the 
loveliest  fellows  in  the  world.  How 
they  would  have  soft-soaped  the  white 
people  of  North  Carolina.  Words  of 
praise  would  have  fallen  from  their 
lips  and  they  would  have  felt  like  they 
had  "lasses  running  down  their  backs" 
as  the  good  old  song  Dixie  has  it. 

But  now  all  see  why  they  can.  find 
nothing  good  in  the  white  man's  party. 

We  are  proud  that  they  can  find 
nothing  to  complain  of  that  is  not 
frivolous. 

Let  the  intelligent  people  of  the  State 
decide. 


FOR  USE  ONLY  IN 
THE  NORTH  CAROLINA  COLLECTION 


